House Health Committee hears broad package on mental health capacity, youth services, newborn screening and housing; bills laid over

The House Health and Human Services Finance Policy Committee heard testimony and laid over a package of bills addressing mental-health bed capacity and the so-called 48-hour priority-admissions statute, a regional approach to county-involved youth with complex behavioral-health needs, presumptive Medicaid eligibility for infants with positive newborn screening results, homelessness funding and several aging- and workforce-related measures.

Committee members, county officials and health and justice system leaders emphasized that capacity at state-operated Direct Care and Treatment facilities (DCT) and community beds must expand before lawmakers alter timelines or processes that affect transfers of people from jails and hospitals to appropriate treatment settings. The committee laid over each bill for possible inclusion in future omnibus action.

County leaders and criminal-justice officials told the committee the backlog of people awaiting admission to state treatment beds is severe and growing. "Without necessary funding upwards of $150,000,000 in the first year and $70,000,000 in the second, this crisis will continue," Brian Welk, sheriff of Cass County, testified on behalf of the Minnesota Sheriffs Association, referring to requests county and stakeholder groups have made to expand capacity. Terrell Clark, a Stearns County commissioner, said counties should not bear costs when state-operated capacity causes delays: "Counties should not be charged 100% of the cost of the placement," he said, citing a county estimate that temporary charges for stays outside a medically appropriate bed can reach about $2,400 a day.

Why it matters: counties, prosecutors, sheriffs and mental-health providers said the Priority Admissions statute (often called the 48-hour rule) provides accountability but cannot change without clear and immediate expansion of…