AN ACT relating to behavioral health services.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 210 to define terms; establish the Kentucky Youth Mobile Crisis Response Program within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services; set requirements for mobile crisis response teams; require the cabinet to develop protocols and issue a report to the Interim Joint Committees on Health Services and Families and Children; require the cabinet to promulgate administrative regulations; establish the Youth Behavioral Health Crisis Advisory Board; require behavioral health emergency services provided by a mobile crisis response team to be paid for by the state if a youth is uninsured or the services are not covered under his or her insurance plan; create a new section of Subtitle 17A of KRS Chapter 304 to require a health benefit or plan that provides benefits for mental health or substance abuse to provide coverage for behavioral health emergency services; amend KRS 205.522 to require Medicaid to cover behavioral health emergency services; amend KRS 205.6485 to require behavioral health emergency services to be covered by the Kentucky Children's Health Insurance Program; amend KRS 164.2871 to require coverage for behavioral health emergency services under self-insured employer group health plans provided by the governing board of a state postsecondary education institution; amend KRS 18A.225 to require coverage for behavioral health emergency services under the state employee health plan; direct the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to seek federal approval if deemed necessary; EFFECTIVE, in part, January 1, 2025.