Panel backs expanded oversight, ombudsman and board for youth congregate-care programs

The House Health and Human Services Committee on Tuesday adopted the fifth substitute for SB 297 and voted to favorably recommend the measure to the full House, a set of changes sponsor Senator McCall said will tighten oversight of youth congregate‑care programs.

The bill, as described by Senator McCall, creates an advisory board to help licensing set admission, treatment and suicide‑prevention standards, establishes an ombudsman for families and guardians to report concerns, and adds provisions to clarify when a program must treat an event as a “critical incident.” The fifth substitute also adds language about supervision of staff under investigation and billing and privacy rules tied to covered services.

The changes respond to concerns from hospitals, providers and advocates that Utah’s hospitals are sometimes left caring for behaviorally complex out‑of‑state patients for extended periods. Amanda Chaudhary, hospital president of Primary Children’s Taylorsville, told the committee Primary Children’s took care of an out‑of‑state patient who “was literally stuck occupying a bed for 147 days,” and that the hospital’s average pediatric behavioral health stay is seven days. “That means we delayed or denied care for 22 Utah kids during the time the one out‑of‑state patient lived with us,” Chaudhary said.

Sponsor remarks and the substitute text make three specific operational changes: (1) staff under investigation at one facility must be supervised if hired elsewhere until an investigation clears, (2) a transport‑related problem counts as a program critical incident only if the program knew of the problem (including force, coercion or deception) and failed to report it, and (3) facilities may provide a telephone for an ombudsman but need not place it in an unsupervised common area to prevent misuse.

Senator McCall told the committee the advisory board will include medical and mental‑health professionals (a pediatrician with behavioral health experience, a psychiatrist, psychologists and therapists) and said the board will advise licensing on standards. The bill also includes HIPAA‑related language about what patient information facilities may access when billing for services.

Families and survivors spoke in support. Katie Silvers, who said her 17‑year‑old son Baruch died while in a residential treatment facility in Utah, urged passage: “My son is dead. His siblings will never see their little brother again,” she told the committee. Silvers said staff had documented that her son told a psychiatrist he planned to hang himself, but that information was not shared with his parents and was not acted on in a way that, she said, would have prevented his death.

Caroline Lawson, strategic advocacy lead for 11:11 Media Impact, described SB 297 as “the next step” after earlier legislation and urged the committee to support commonsense protections for children in care.

Representative Clancy moved to adopt the fifth substitute and, after that motion passed, moved that the committee favorably recommend SB 297 (fifth substitute) to the House floor; both motions passed by voice vote.

Committee members and industry representatives also discussed a separate bill, SB 240 (second substitute), that the committee favorably recommended. That measure, described by Senator Owens as a due‑process bill developed in collaboration with the industry and the Office of Licensing, narrows timelines for background checks, clarifies procedures when licensing issues arise (including follow‑up inspections), and protects a facility’s right to appeal without being automatically penalized while an appeal is pending.

The committee’s actions send both measures to the next stage of floor consideration.

Ending — The committee allowed members of the public time for comment and heard multiple survivors and industry representatives before returning to and approving the sponsor’s motion to advance the bills.