Bill > H242

This bill adds freestanding psychiatric hospitals to North Carolina's Healthcare Access and Stabilization Program (HASP), a Medicaid payment program that provides increased reimbursements to hospitals. Specifically, the bill defines a qualifying freestanding psychiatric hospital as one that is licensed in North Carolina, primarily provides psychiatric services to inpatients, is not state-owned, is Medicare-certified, and submits cost reports to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to request CMS approval to include these hospitals in the HASP program and establishes new provisions for assessing and collecting hospital modernized assessments that now include freestanding psychiatric hospitals. The bill also modifies various sections of state law to incorporate these psychiatric hospitals into existing hospital assessment and reimbursement frameworks, ensuring they will be subject to similar assessment percentages and payment calculations as acute care hospitals. The changes will take effect on the first day of the next assessment quarter after the bill becomes law, allowing for a structured implementation of the new hospital category in the Medicaid payment system.

Budget and Finance, Health and Social Services

https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/H242