Bill Summary
The Home-Based Telemental Health Care Act of 2020 is a bill that aims to establish a demonstration program for providing mental health services through telecommunication to rural and underserved populations, as well as individuals working in farming, fishing, and forestry occupations. The purpose of this legislation is to address the lack of mental health services available in these communities and occupations, which is often due to accessibility issues, stigma, and a shortage of mental health professionals. The bill would provide grants to eligible entities to implement home-based telemental health programs and measure their effectiveness in comparison to traditional in-person care. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, would also be required to report on the impact and quality of these services every two years. The bill allocates up to $10 million each year for five years to fund this program.
Possible Impacts
1. People living in rural areas, especially those in medically underserved populations and those working in farming, fishing, or forestry occupations, may have increased access to mental health services through the home-based telemental health care demonstration program established by this legislation.
2. Mental health professionals may have the opportunity to provide services to patients in their homes through the use of telemental health technologies, allowing for more convenient and comfortable access to care.
3. The government may invest up to $10,000,000 per fiscal year to support the implementation and evaluation of this program, potentially impacting the availability and quality of mental health services for covered populations.
[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3917 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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116th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 3917
To establish a home-based telemental health care demonstration program
for purposes of increasing mental health services in rural medically
underserved populations and for individuals in farming, fishing, and
forestry occupations.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 9, 2020
Mr. Rounds (for himself, Ms. Smith, Mr. Cramer, Ms. Collins, Mr.
Markey, Mr. Boozman, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, and Mr. Bennet) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish a home-based telemental health care demonstration program
for purposes of increasing mental health services in rural medically
underserved populations and for individuals in farming, fishing, and
forestry occupations.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Home-Based Telemental Health Care
Act of 2020''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds as follows:
(1) It is estimated that 46,600,000 adults experience
mental illness in a given year in the United States, with 7.1
percent of adults in the United States living with major
depression and 19.1 percent of such adults living with anxiety
disorders.
(2) According to the results from the 2017 National Survey
on Drug Use and Health, 19.1 percent of residents in rural
communities aged 18 or older have any mental illness, or
approximately 6,800,000 people; 4.9 percent, or nearly
1,700,000 rural residents experience serious thoughts of
suicide.
(3) A study by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention suggests that people in farming, fishing, and
forestry occupations (referred to in this section as the
``Triple-F'' industry) in the United States experienced rates
of 75 and 76 suicides per 100,000 people in 2012 and 2015,
respectively.
(4) The COVID-19 pandemic has put additional stress on
people in the Triple-F population. The pandemic has caused
instability in the markets, especially as the virus has caused
a downturn in food service sales and has closed meat processing
plants across the Nation. This has left farmers with low
commodity prices and loss of revenue. Additional resources are
needed to support the mental health needs of this population.
(5) While the prevalence of mental illness is similar among
rural and urban residents, the services available to each
population are very different. Mental health care needs are not
met in rural communities due to many challenges, including
accessibility issues due to transportation and geographic
isolation, the stigma of needing or receiving mental health
care, a lack of anonymity when seeking treatment, shortages of
mental health workforce professionals, and affordability due to
a high rate of uninsured residents.
(6) Telemental health, which is the delivery of mental
health services using remote technologies when the patient and
provider are separated by distance, shows promise in helping to
alleviate the lack of mental health services in rural areas.
Traditional telemental health models involve care delivered to
a patient at an originating clinical site from a specialist
working at a distant site. Having the ability to reach mental
health professionals from a place of comfort, such as home,
from a personal device may reduce challenges faced in rural
areas and amongst Triple-F workers.
(7) A clinical trial of 241 depressed elderly veterans,
which was conducted by the Medical University of South Carolina
and the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and
published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, found that
home-based telemental health for depression is well received by
patients and delivers as good a quality of life as in-person
visits.
SEC. 3. MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES DELIVERED TO RURAL UNDERSERVED
POPULATIONS VIA TELEMENTAL HEALTH CARE.
Title III of the Public Health Service Act is amended by inserting
after section 330K (42 U.S.C. 254c-16) the following:
``SEC. 330K-1. MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES DELIVERED TO RURAL UNDERSERVED
POPULATIONS VIA TELEMENTAL HEALTH CARE.
``(a) Definitions.--In this section--
``(1) the term `covered populations' means--
``(A) medically underserved populations in rural
areas (as defined in section 1886(d)(2)(D) of the
Social Security Act); or
``(B) populations engaged in a farming, fishing, or
forestry industry;
``(2) the term `eligible entity' means a public or
nonprofit private telemental health provider network that
offers services that include mental health services provided by
professionals trained in mental health;
``(3) the term `farming, fishing, or forestry industry'
means an occupation defined as a farming, fishing, or forestry
occupation by the Department of Labor in accordance with the
Standard Occupational Classification System;
``(4) the term `home-based telemental' means the use of
telemental health services where the patient is in his or her
own home or other place of comfort;
``(5) the term `medically underserved population' has the
meaning given such term in section 330(b);
``(6) the term `professional trained in mental health'
means a psychiatrist, a qualified mental health professional
(as defined in section 330K), or another mental health
professional acting under the direction of a psychiatrist;
``(7) the term `rural' has the meaning given such term by
the Office of Rural Health Policy of the Health Resources and
Services Administration; and
``(8) the term `telemental health' means the use of
electronic information and telecommunications technologies to
support long distance clinical health care, patient and
professional health-related education, public health, and
health administration.
``(b) Program Authorized.--The Secretary, acting through the
Director of the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth of the Health
Resources and Services Administration and in coordination with the
Rural Health Liaison of the Department of Agriculture, shall award
grants to eligible entities to establish demonstration projects for the
provision of mental health services to covered populations in their
homes, as delivered remotely by professionals trained in mental health
using telemental health care.
``(c) Use of Funds.--Recipients of a grant under this section shall
use the grant funds to--
``(1) deliver home-based telemental health services to
covered populations; and
``(2) develop comprehensive metrics to measure the quality
and impact of home-based telemental health services compared to
traditional in-person mental health care.
``(d) Report.--The Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of
Agriculture, 3 years after the date on which the program under this
section commences, and 2 years thereafter, shall submit to the
appropriate congressional committees reports on the impact and quality
of care of home-based telemental health care services for covered
populations.
``(e) Authorized Use of Funds.--Out of any amounts made available
to the Secretary, up to $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021
through 2025 may be allocated to carrying out the program under this
section.''.
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