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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2025 - 2026
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 12, 2024 09:33 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative James B. Struzzi, II and Rep. Arvind Venkat |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Developing a Process to Prevent Emergency Room Boarding of Medicaid Patients Who Require Behavioral Health or Long-Term Care Services |
| Hospital emergency departments are one of the main entry points to obtain critical health care services when patients are in crisis. While many emergency departments are improving their ability to effectively assess and triage patients in need of behavioral health care or other long-term care services, hospitals often face long delays in dispositioning patients to appropriate inpatient and outpatient treatment settings causing patients to wait in the emergency department for extended periods of time. We have both witnessed this firsthand in our local hospitals. This lack of process creates undue burdens on hospitals and their staffs while not providing the critical care these patients need. In 2020, the Joint State Government Commission released a report based on HR 268 (Sponsor -Representative Struzzi). The study was instructed to find possible solutions for better access to care and referrals to treatment. We believe developing a standardized process for our hospitals to track and place such patients in definitive care is an appropriate starting point based on the findings of the report. Delayed disposition of patients impacts both patients and delivery system outcomes—increasing psychological stress upon patients and their families, delaying treatment that could mitigate the need for inpatient stays, consuming scarce emergency department resources, worsening emergency department crowding and delaying treatment for other emergency department patients. While systematic barriers to timely placement and access to appropriate behavioral health or other long-term care services are broad and complex, we plan to introduce simple legislation directing the Department of Human Services to develop a statewide process to place patients, enrolled in Medicaid, with behavioral health or other long-term care needs in appropriate care settings in a timely matter. This process includes an escalation clause for cases where patient boarding exceeds an acceptable amount of time. A similar process has been successfully implemented in Massachusetts. As a commonwealth, we must begin to address the inadequacies in behavioral health and our healthcare delivery system that prevent patients from being discharged in a timely manner to appropriate care settings. This legislative proposal is just one step to make sure our constituents receive the appropriate care at the appropriate time. Please join us in cosponsoring this legislation. |
Memo Updated: December 12, 2024 09:35 AM