Senate committee advances package of bills to expand perinatal, maternal and behavioral health programs

The Oregon Senate Committee on Early Childhood and Behavioral Health on April 3 adopted amendments and voted to send a group of bills aimed at strengthening the perinatal and behavioral health workforce and services to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means.

Committee members approved changes and recommended that Senate Bill 527, Senate Bill 691, Senate Bill 693 and Senate Bill 695 be placed on the floor with a "do pass" recommendation and referred to Ways and Means for funding review.

Katie, committee staff, summarized the bills’ provisions on the record. "Senate bill 527 directs the Oregon Health Authority to create a grant program to fund pilot programs that create opportunities for high school students to receive training to enter the behavioral health workforce and allocates $3,500,000 from the general fund," she said. The amendment to SB 527 requires grant programs to be based on evidence from successful training models and to provide culturally and linguistically specific training for students from underserved communities.

On SB 691, Katie described the bill as a measure "to expand a project for improved maternal and neonatal outcomes and change medical assistance coverage requirements for a person with a substance use disorder who is pregnant or the parent of an infant." The dash-1 amendment allocates $6,500,000 from the general fund to the Oregon Health Authority for the 2025–27 biennium, with $500,000 set aside for technical assistance to new and existing sites, $5,000,000 for grants to new sites and $1,000,000 for grants to existing sites. The amendment also requires coverage of certain services for people who are pregnant or parents of infants and have a substance use…