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Committee advances interstate compact allowing cross‑border behavioral‑health care for parolees and probationers
Summary
Senate File 1173 would remove a restriction that prevented people on probation or parole from receiving cross‑border mental‑health services under interstate compacts and add a notification requirement for cross‑state contracts; the committee passed the bill and placed it on general orders.
Senator Kupak presented Senate File 11‑73, which would amend Minnesota law governing interstate compacts and contracts that enable cross‑border behavioral‑health services so people on probation or parole can receive treatment across state lines when it is the closest available care.
Testimony included North Dakota Senator Tim Mathern, who described similar legislation in North Dakota and said the change permits sharing facilities and reduces recidivism by widening access to treatment. Ty Haglund, CEO of Prairie St. John’s psychiatric hospital in Fargo, said roughly 50 percent of his facility’s nearly 12,000 annual referrals come from Minnesota and that interstate constraints had forced many ‘‘deflections’’ of patients who could not be served. A North Dakota mental‑health advocate and a graduate‑student mental‑health worker testified in support, saying cross‑border access improves continuity of care and reduces system costs.
Senators and testifiers said memorandum‑of‑agreement language would confirm that the patient’s home state retains payment responsibility, so the change does not create new costs for either state. The committee voted to recommend passage and placed the bill on general orders.
