Bill > HB2249

This bill establishes the South Central Regional Mental Health Hospital in Wichita, Kansas, and makes several technical amendments to various state laws to incorporate this new hospital into existing healthcare and administrative frameworks. The bill requires the secretary for aging and disability services to grant physical environment waivers to certain rural emergency hospitals, allowing them to transition up to 10 swing beds to skilled nursing facility beds if they meet specific criteria, such as being currently licensed as a rural emergency hospital and having previously provided skilled nursing services for at least 12 months. The new South Central Regional Mental Health Hospital will be a state hospital open for patient reception, with a dedicated fee fund administered by the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services. The bill also includes provisions for an extension to the state security hospital within this new facility, which will be used to hold, examine, treat, and care for mentally ill persons committed by criminal courts or transferred from correctional institutions. Throughout the bill, numerous existing state laws are amended to reference the new hospital, removing mentions of the Rainbow Mental Health Facility and updating various references to state psychiatric hospitals and healthcare facilities.

Health and Social Services

Health and Human Services (H)

https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2025_26/measures/hb2249/