HI SB1494

Establishes a working group within the Department of Health to evaluate behavioral health care systems and identify steps to integrate services for persons experiencing substance abuse, mental health conditions, and homelessness.

Working group membership includes representatives from the Department of Health (chair), Department of Public Safety, Department of Human Services med-QUEST division, judiciary, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs insurance division, Hawaii Opioid Initiative, health plans, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, Hawaii interagency council on homelessness, and a licensed clinical social worker.

Working group shall evaluate funding streams and their metrics, barriers to treatment access, policies perpetuating access barriers, care coordination practices, recommended policies or legislative actions, and defined roles for state, county, and community entities.

Members serve without compensation but receive reimbursement for reasonable expenses; permitted to discuss official business in groups of two or more without constituting a quorum under Hawaii Revised Statutes section 92-2.5.

Working group must submit findings and recommendations to the legislature no later than twenty days before the 2020 regular legislative session and shall be dissolved on June 30, 2021; Act takes effect July 1, 2019.