Mental Health Care Study Amendments
HB0365 requires the Utah Department of Health and Human Services to issue a request for proposals for an outside person or entity to conduct a comprehensive study of pediatric mental health care access in Utah. The study must measure the average time from a child’s referral to the first available mental health appointment, identify barriers to access, compare wait times across regions and provider types, and gather both quantitative and qualitative information, including parent surveys.
The bill also directs the study to examine factors such as geography, insurance type, provider availability, specialty care needs, and payment models. The selected researcher must protect patient privacy, comply with state and federal privacy laws, and deidentify all data. The study must produce a preliminary report by May 31, 2026, and a final report with policy recommendations by May 31, 2027.
HB0365 creates a new section of Utah Code, Section 26B-5-613, establishing a formal state-directed study process on pediatric mental health access. It does not appropriate money, but it requires the department to solicit proposals, oversee the study, and deliver findings to the Health and Human Services Interim Committee and the Behavioral Health Commission. The bill affects the Department of Health and Human Services, children seeking mental health care, parents, providers, and policymakers by generating data that could support future changes to mental health access and delivery.
The bill appears to have broad support and little visible opposition. It passed the House committee 10-2, the House floor 53-11, and the Senate committee and floor unanimously or near-unanimously, indicating generally favorable sentiment toward studying pediatric mental health wait times and access barriers. The discussion history provided does not include transcript debate, but the vote margins suggest the bill was viewed as a practical, noncontroversial information-gathering measure.
The main point of potential contention is not the study itself but the scope and usefulness of the research: the bill requires analysis of wait times, barriers, and policy recommendations, which may raise questions about methodology, data collection, and how the findings will be used. Any concerns would likely center on privacy protections, the burden on providers or families participating in the study, and whether the state should be spending resources on a study rather than immediate service expansion. However, the strong votes suggest these concerns were limited or not politically significant.