SB 1336 Summary

• Amends section 36-405 to add "secure behavioral health residential facilities" as a class of health care institutions subject to licensing by the Department of Health Services.

• Expands the Seriously Mentally Ill Housing Trust Fund to allow monies for rental assistance and two types of residential settings: community living homes with embedded support for persons holding their own leases, and licensed behavioral health residential facilities providing secure 24-hour on-site treatment and supervision.

• Requires behavioral health residential facilities receiving trust fund monies to serve individuals with serious mental illness ordered to such facilities by mental health courts, probate courts, criminal courts, or guardianship proceedings, or as part of diversion agreements with law enforcement.

• Directs the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System Administration to conduct a program study measuring outcomes for seriously mentally ill residents in each setting, analyzing costs, effectiveness, and impacts on hospitalization, incarceration, homelessness, employment, and police/fire encounters.

• Requires the Department of Health Services to adopt rules by January 1, 2020, establishing standards for secure behavioral health residential facilities and grants a one-year rulemaking exemption from standard procedures.