HOUSE BILL NO. 4051

January 16, 2019, Introduced by Rep. Whiteford and referred to the Committee on Health Policy.

"Mental health code,"

(MCL 330.1001 to 330.2106) by adding section 165.

the people of the state of michigan enact:

Sec. 165. (1) The department shall establish and make available to the public the Michigan CARES (Community, Access, Resources, Education, and Safety) hotline. This hotline shall be a telephone referral system that connects individuals experiencing a mental health crisis to a local mental health provider using telecommunications and digital communications methods commonly in use, such as a telephone call, text, electronic mail, and internet chat. The hotline must also provide the ability to evaluate callers and direct the callers to the appropriate level of care support, including the ability to connect individuals who need substance use disorder treatment and rehabilitation services to an appropriate provider and the ability to connect to suicide prevention resources when necessary.

(2) The department shall contract for the design, operation, and maintenance of the Michigan CARES hotline. The Michigan CARES hotline shall be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Individuals operating or maintaining the Michigan CARES hotline shall do all of the following:

(a) Have the ability to access information related to the availability of services, including real-time access to any registry of available inpatient psychiatric beds.

(b) Have the ability to leverage telehealth resources.

(d) Implement practices to ensure the security of the data collected, in line with industry best practices and in compliance with all applicable laws.

(e) Notwithstanding provisions in subdivisions (c) and (d), collect data and utilize data analytics to track the success of the Michigan CARES hotline's operations and identify trends in service needs and outcomes.

(3) The department shall work with the department of licensing and regulatory affairs and the contractor described in subsection (2) to leverage existing databases and other sources of information identifying providers of mental health services and substance use disorder treatment and rehabilitation services.

(4) The department of licensing and regulatory affairs shall provide licensing information for appropriate providers of mental health and substance use disorder services to the contractor described in subsection (2) to support the goals of the Michigan CARES hotline. The department and the department of licensing and regulatory affairs shall continue to provide the most current licensing information to the contractor described in subsection (2).

(5) The entity under contract as required in subsection (2) shall utilize technology capable of interfacing with licensing information at the department of licensing and regulatory affairs so that the contractor required under subsection (2) utilizes the most current provider information available.

Enacting section 1. This amendatory act takes effect 90 days after the date it is enacted into law.