Senate panel agrees to concur on S.36 with House changes; bill adds reports on services for incapacitated people and Human Services Board review

The Senate Committee on Health & Welfare indicated it will concur with the House amendment to S.36, which keeps existing Medicaid reimbursement language for high- and low-intensity residential treatment intact, replaces the phrase “public inebriate” with the statutory descriptor “persons who are incapacitated,” and requires multiple agency reports and presentations to the policy committees.

The House amendment preserves sections of S.36 on Medicaid payment models and the effective date while changing the language that identifies the population the bill addresses, and it adds reporting requirements. The amendment directs the Departments of Health and of Mental Health to prioritize Chittenden County in a plan to expand services and programming for persons who are incapacitated and requires a joint presentation to policy committees on or before Feb. 15 of the coming year. The Department of Corrections must also present, by the same date, on efforts to reconnect persons held in correctional facilities because of incapacitation with community substance-use recovery providers.

The bill retains the committee’s earlier Medicaid reimbursement provisions for high- and low-intensity residential treatment and a required report on a Medicaid payment model. Legislative counsel told the committee the human-services committee replaced the term “public inebriate” with the statutory term…