Rhode Island General Laws 42-72-5.2. Development of a continuum of children’s behavioral health programs

The departments of children, youth, and families (DCYF) and human services (DHS) shall cooperate to develop a design of a continuum of care for children’s behavioral health services that encourages the use of alternative psychiatric and other services to hospitalization and reviews the utilization of each service in order to better match services and programs to the needs of the children and families as well as continuously improve the quality of and access to services. The departments of children, youth, and families and human services shall present a report to the governor and the general assembly no later than February 1, 2006 that fully describes this continuum of services and outlines a detailed plan for its implementation, including resource requirements, responsibilities, milestones, and time frames, as well as a set of indicators and program metrics that will be employed to evaluate its clinical and fiscal effectiveness over time. The report shall also describe any and all changes proposed in program oversight or budgetary responsibility for specific services. An important step towards the development of such continuum of care is to assure the appropriate management of psychiatric hospitalizations. To that end the state shall:

(1) Amend contractual agreements with RIte Care health plans to reflect complete responsibility for the management of psychiatric hospitalizations, specifically the development of hospital diversion and post discharge services; and the utilization of crisis intervention services as a requirement for authorization of a psychiatric admission for all children enrolled in RIte Care; and

(2) Issue a request for proposals to identify a contracted entity to reflect complete responsibility for the management of psychiatric hospitalizations, specifically the development of hospital diversion and post discharge services for crisis intervention services as a requirement for authorization of a psychiatric admission for all Medicaid-eligible children not enrolled in RIte Care. The request for proposals shall include a dispute resolution process.

History of Section.
P.L. 2005, ch. 400, § 1; P.L. 2006, ch. 1, § 1.

The children’s cabinet shall:

(1) Meet at least monthly to address all issues, especially those that cross departmental lines, and relate to children’s needs and services;

(2) Review, amend, and propose all interagency agreements necessary to provide coordinated services to children;

(3) Produce an annual comprehensive children’s budget, to be submitted with other budget documents to the general assembly;

(4) Produce, by December 1, 2015, a comprehensive, five (5) year statewide plan and proposed budget for an integrated state child service system. This plan shall be submitted to the governor; the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the senate, and updated annually thereafter;

(5) [Deleted by P.L. 2015, ch. 141, art. 5, § 21].

(6) Develop a strategic plan to coordinate and share data to foster interagency communication, increase efficiency of service delivery, and simultaneously protect children’s legitimate expectations of privacy and rights to confidentiality. This shall include data-sharing with research partners, pursuant to data-sharing agreements, that maintains data integrity and protects the security and confidentiality of these records. Any such data-sharing agreements shall comply with all privacy and security requirements of federal and state law and regulation governing the use of such data. Any universal student identifier now in use by the state or developed in the future shall not involve a student’s social security number.

History of Section.
P.L. 1991, ch. 339, § 1; P.L. 2001, ch. 150, § 1; P.L. 2015, ch. 141, art. 5, § 21.

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Rhode Island General Laws 42-72-5.2. Development of a continuum of children’s behavioral health programs

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Rhode Island General Laws 42-72.5-2. Policy and goals