An Act amending the act of July 19, 1979 (P.L.130, No.48), known as the Health Care Facilities Act, in general provisions, repeals and effective date, providing for acute care mental health bed regist . . .ry and referrals.
Summary
HB493 would require the Pennsylvania Department of Health to create and run a web-based registry of acute care mental health beds. The registry is intended to help health care professionals locate inpatient mental health placement for individuals who meet the criteria for examination and treatment under the Mental Health Procedures Act. Participating facilities would provide information about their services, contact details, bed availability, security level, and the types of patients they can admit, with bed counts updated every eight hours.
The bill also requires the registry to include a public-facing version with limited information to protect confidential medical and personal data. That public view would show facility locations and contact information, available beds and services, waiting-list counts, estimated time until the next bed is available, and the date and time of the last update. The Department of Health may contract with a third party to build and administer the system and must issue regulations to implement it.
Impact
HB493 would amend the Health Care Facilities Act by adding a new section requiring a statewide acute care mental health bed registry and referral tool. It would impose new reporting and participation requirements on mental health facilities that want access to the registry, while giving the Department of Health authority to collect, display, and regulate bed-availability information. The bill would also create a limited public transparency mechanism for mental health bed capacity and wait times, affecting hospitals, psychiatric facilities, clinicians, and patients seeking inpatient mental health care.
Sentiment
The bill appears to be generally supportive of improving access to mental health inpatient placement and reducing delays in finding available beds. Because there were no committee transcripts or recorded votes provided, there is no documented debate or formal opposition in the available materials. The overall framing of the bill suggests a practical, service-oriented approach to mental health system coordination.
Contention
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided record. Potential areas of concern inherent in the bill include the administrative burden on facilities to report bed data every eight hours, the need to protect confidential patient information while publishing public-facing availability data, and whether participation in the registry should be mandatory or effectively incentivized through access. The bill text does not show any recorded disagreement, but those implementation and privacy issues would likely be the main topics if opposition emerged.
In licensing of health care facilities, providing for hospital pricing transparency; providing for acquisition of health care facilities; and conferring powers to the Department of Health and Attorney General.
Requires automatic registration with New Jersey Immunization Information System upon administration of vaccine for certain persons who consent to registration.
Requires automatic registration with New Jersey Immunization Information System upon administration of vaccine for certain persons who consent to registration.