SB528

SB528 adds local coordination and annual performance reporting for facilities providing inpatient competency-restoration services through Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) contracts or subcontracts. Competency restoration is treatment or education aimed at restoring a defendant’s ability to understand the proceedings and consult rationally with a lawyer; it is not a finding of guilt or a promise that an illness has been cured. Covered facilities; Official definition of competency restoration.

HHSC must adopt rules requiring each covered facility to enter a memorandum of understanding with its county and municipality and the applicable local mental-health and behavioral-health authorities. The agreement must outline the parties’ powers and duties for inpatient competency restoration. The act does not itself award a contract or create a new treatment facility. Local agreements.

Facilities must report annually to HHSC on the preceding year: how many people received services and regained competency; average treatment days for those restored; how many were restored within 60 days; how many needed an extension after the initial restoration period; how many were not restored and transferred to an inpatient mental-health or statutory residential-care facility; and the average delay between the non-restoration determination and transfer. Data must be separated by misdemeanor versus felony charges and other appropriate demographic factors HHSC determines. The 60-day figure is a reporting measure, not a new universal treatment deadline. Required facility data.

HHSC must report to the legislature by August 1 each year, beginning August 1, 2027, covering the preceding state fiscal year. The report must evaluate each covered facility, include aggregated demographic information—including charges, countries of origin and diagnoses if applicable—and compare overall costs with state-hospital forensic restoration and other HHSC-managed restoration programs. The law calls for aggregated data, not publication of a named patient list. Legislative report and first deadline.

The bill became law without the governor’s signature on June 20, 2025, and took effect September 1, 2025. It is not a governor-signed measure. Official history.