A year after passing legislation that aimed to improve Georgia’s mental health system, the same bipartisan group of lawmakers has filed a new bill that they say will address the shortage of mental health providers and streamline the way agencies share information about patients.
Last year’s effort was a priority of then-House Speaker David Ralston, who aimed to ensure that mental health care was covered by insurance companies in the same way that physical health care is covered. Lawmakers also greatly increased funding for mental health services. Ralston died in November.
“Today we’ve begun the next chapter of our ongoing commitment to better mental health care in Georgia,” House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said during a press conference announcing the legislation. “We are mindful that Speaker Ralston and his wife, Sheree, were driving forces behind last year’s success. While we miss him dearly, we are proud to continue the work he inspired.”
House Bill 520 would expand a student loan forgiveness program created last year for mental health providers who work in underserved areas of the state and take other steps to improve care. HB 520 would allow those who are already working in the mental health field and still have student loans to apply for loan forgiveness.
“We know that workforce deficiencies are a part of many of the problems all our businesses and social services are facing this year and will for the immediate future,” said state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, a Decatur Democrat who is co-sponsoring the bill. “If they’re serving people in Georgia but still have a student loan, we want them to apply (for forgiveness) and get the benefits.”
This year’s bill also aims to increase capacity for people who need to receive inpatient care. To do that, state Rep. Todd Jones, a Republican from Cumming, said the bill would ask the Behavioral Health Reform and Innovation Commission to do a “bed study” to determine how many people can receive inpatient behavioral health care in Georgia facilities. Jones is also co-sponsoring HB 520.
“There is not a week that goes by, and I can speak for Rep. Oliver and myself, when we (don’t) literally have at least one or two Georgians contact us personally and say, ‘My son, my daughter, my cousin (needs help). What am I supposed to do?’” Jones said. “They can’t find a bed.”
The legislation calls on the behavioral health commission to work with the departments of Community Supervision, Corrections, Juvenile Justice, and others to develop an agreed-upon definition of “serious mental illness” to ensure consistent data collection from law enforcement.
Last year’s bill aimed to enforce a federal law that requires “parity” in health coverage and take other steps to improve care. The federal government in 2008 enacted a law that aimed to require parity — meaning insurance companies were to cover mental health care the same way they do physical health care. Data has not been collected in Georgia to determine whether that is happening, but anecdotal evidence indicated it was not at the time.
The new law also requires public health insurers, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and private insurers to file reports on parity to the commissioners of the Department of Public Health and Department of Insurance.
Georgia ranks low nationally on most measurements of mental health treatment and high in the percentage of residents who face challenges, according to a report this year by Mental Health America, a century-old nonprofit advocacy group. Georgia ranks 47th in the nation for the number of mental health professionals per capita at 640 residents for every one provider. The national average is 350 residents per provider.
Both last year’s and this year’s bill were the result of recommendations from the behavioral health commission.
Lawmakers said the 2022 law was just the beginning of efforts to improve mental health care in Georgia.
“Speaker Ralston was absolutely the spearhead to (last year’s legislation), and we will always thank him for that,” Jones said. “For us, that was just the beginning point. And this is in fact the decade of mental health.”
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