Committee backs audio‑only telehealth, school‑linked grants and children’s mental‑health investments; advocates press for Medicaid collaborative‑care benefit

Senate staff and witnesses told the Health and Human Services Committee on April 9 that the omnibus HHS bill preserves or expands several mental‑health provisions: ongoing funding for school‑linked behavioral health grants, one‑time and ongoing grants for early‑episode supports and pilot funding for mental health collaboration hubs aimed at reducing children boarding in hospitals.

Staff noted that Senator Utke’s proposal to extend audio‑only telehealth services (Senate File 2743) appears in the bill. Mr. Bessel described the combined general‑fund and Health Care Access Fund cost as about $18,900,000 in the first biennium.

Advocates and clinicians supported the bill’s mental‑health investments but urged additional reforms.

“Minnesota is in a mental health crisis right now,” said Elliot Butay of NAMI Minnesota, who thanked the committee for including multiple items from the Mental Health Legislative Network and asked for further action to move children’s mental‑health care out of child‑protection pathways.

Tyler Winkelman, an internal medicine division director who works in integrated models of care, asked the committee to make the collaborative‑care model a Medicaid benefit. He described collaborative care as a team‑based primary‑care approach that is supported by randomized trials and that can reduce emergency department and hospital use while improving outcomes.

Key mental‑health items and testimony

- Audio‑only telehealth: Staff listed extension of audio‑only telehealth coverage (Sen. Utke’s SF 2743) with a roughly $18.9M first‑biennium cost shown on the spreadsheet.

- Children's mental health: The omnibus includes rate increases and market‑based adjustments for outpatient mental‑health services, funding to address inpatient/outpatient rate sustainability and grants for early‑episode bipolar disorder and school‑linked behavioral health.

- PRTF work and boarding pilots: The bill funds pilots and a working group to expand psychiatric residential treatment facility access and to pilot mental‑health collaboration hubs intended to move children from hospital boarding to community care.

- Other provisions: Testimony noted expanded coverage for targeted case management in some proposals, with tribal and advocate requests to include complex PTSD and related eligibility changes in targeted case management statutes.

Ending note

Committee members included multiple mental‑health provisions in the spreadsheet; clinicians and advocates asked lawmakers to add collaborative care as a Medicaid benefit and to pursue additional funding to address the children’s mental‑health crisis.