SB2069

The Health and Human Services Commission must establish a work group to study a registry listing available beds at inpatient mental health facilities for psychiatric treatment. The incorporated facility definition requires capacity for 24-hour residential and psychiatric services and includes the listed public, private, community, general-hospital and federal facilities. The act does not itself require those facilities to upload real-time bed data. Final law, section 1(a)–(b); Inpatient-facility definition.

The HHSC executive commissioner appoints all members: the chair of the Texas Hospital Association and presidents of the Texas Medical Association and Texas Nurses Association, or their designees; two technology experts; a licensed psychiatrist; a licensed professional counselor; a substance-use treatment facility worker; representatives of a rural hospital, a hospital in a county of at least four million people, an urban hospital in a smaller county, a public hospital and a private hospital; a statistician; and a public-health expert. The commissioner may add other appropriate experts. This is 15 specified seats plus any additions, not a fixed maximum of 15. Final law, section 1(c); Licensed-counselor definition.

Members elect their own presiding officer and meet periodically and when that officer calls a meeting. Appointments are required as soon as practicable after the effective date; the act does not specify a fixed monthly meeting schedule. Final law, sections 1(d)–(e) and 2.

By November 1, 2027, HHSC must submit a written study report to each House and Senate standing committee with primary jurisdiction over mental health. It must evaluate registries’ effects; recommend ways to increase public awareness and encourage faster data entry through financial incentives or legislative, regulatory or contractual mechanisms; assess how hospital reimbursements affect bed availability; and compare psychiatric treatment capacity with bed availability. HHSC may include other necessary information. These are study topics, not newly enacted reimbursement rates or reporting mandates. Final law, section 1(f).

The work group is abolished and its authorizing section expires November 1, 2028. The report is due a year before that expiration. This review does not establish that appointments have been made, a report has been completed or a registry has been launched. Final law, section 1(g).

Changes during passage: The introduced bill included five additional seats appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker. The Senate committee substitute removed those seats and put all appointments under the HHSC executive commissioner. It also moved the report deadline from September 1, 2026 to November 1, 2027, and the work-group expiration from September 1, 2027 to November 1, 2028. Those changes survived unchanged in the Senate-passed, House-committee and enrolled texts. No floor amendments are listed. Introduced; Senate substitute; Senate-passed; House committee; Final law; Version index; Amendment index.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Patients, families, hospitals and referral professionals could benefit if the study leads to a useful way to locate care, but this law alone neither increases treatment capacity nor assures admission. HHSC and the appointed experts must devote time to the study and recommendations. Any later operating registry, incentives or mandatory data system would require implementation decisions beyond this act. Final law.

The May 14 engrossed fiscal note anticipates no significant state or local-government fiscal impact and assumes costs can be absorbed with existing resources. The April 5 introduced and April 24 substitute notes reach the same conclusion. These estimates concern the work-group study; they are not a price estimate for building and running a statewide registry or adding psychiatric beds. The act makes no new appropriation. Engrossed fiscal note; Introduced note; Substitute note.