House Bill 6022 makes a broad set of revisions to Michigan’s Mental Health Code, with a particular focus on how people are screened for hospitalization, how minors are evaluated and admitted, and how crisis stabilization units are regulated. The bill updates definitions throughout the code, including definitions tied to assisted outpatient treatment, preadmission screening units, crisis stabilization units, and conversion therapy. It also revises procedures for voluntary and involuntary treatment, second-opinion reviews, notice requirements, and discharge planning.
A major theme of the bill is shifting and clarifying responsibilities between community mental health services programs and contracted health plans. It requires 24-hour preadmission screening units, sets time limits for assessments, allows telehealth for screening, and expands the role of contracted health plans in screening, second opinions, and post-discharge coordination. The bill also adds or clarifies protections from liability for good-faith decisions by screening units, crisis stabilization units, and contracted health plans, while establishing more detailed standards for crisis stabilization unit certification, billing, staffing, oversight, and complaint handling.
The bill would amend multiple sections of the Mental Health Code, changing statutory procedures for admission, screening, treatment review, and discharge of adults and minors. It would require community mental health services programs and contracted health plans to maintain preadmission screening units, authorize telehealth assessments, expand second-opinion processes, and require more structured referral and post-discharge coordination. It also updates crisis stabilization unit certification standards and adds departmental complaint procedures, affecting the Department of Health and Human Services, community mental health entities, hospitals, contracted health plans, and providers serving adults and minors with mental illness or developmental disabilities.
The available record shows no committee transcript or recorded votes, so there is no direct evidence of debate, amendments, or partisan division in the materials provided. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears to be presented as a technical and policy modernization of behavioral health procedures rather than a narrow or symbolic change. Its detailed operational provisions suggest an effort to standardize screening, improve access to crisis services, and clarify responsibilities across the mental health system.
The most likely points of contention are the bill’s expansion of authority for preadmission screening units and contracted health plans, the use of assisted outpatient treatment and involuntary treatment procedures, and the regulatory treatment of crisis stabilization units. The bill also expressly defines conversion therapy in the Mental Health Code, which could be politically sensitive even though the text is definitional rather than a direct ban. Other possible areas of dispute include the timelines for evaluations, the role of telehealth in screening, liability protections for providers, and the extent to which minors’ hospitalization decisions are centralized through community mental health entities or health plans.