Bill > LD1745

Introduced Session

This bill does the following. 1. It requires the Department of Health and Human Services to notify the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over health and human services matters whenever a children's residential care facility closes. The notification must include the name of the facility, the services provided, the number of beds and employees and the reasons for closure. The notification must be within 2 weeks of closure. 2. It requires the Department of Health and Human Services to convene a stakeholder group of child residential treatment providers to identify the short-term and long-term staffing and resources needs to ensure the sustainability of child residential treatment providers and report to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over health and human services matters. 3. It requires the Department of Health and Human Services to assess the costs associated with children and youth with long stays in hospital emergency departments and out-of-state placements of children and youth with behavioral health care needs or developmental disabilities and submit a report to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over health and human services matters. 4. It requires the Department of Health and Human Services to amend its rules in Chapter 101: MaineCare Benefits Manual, Chapter III, Section 97, Private Non-Medical Institution Services, Appendix D, no later than December 3, 2025, to establish a payment model for aftercare services attempts on a per member, per month basis. The payment model must include travel costs and require minimum standards for service delivery attempts, with a maximum of 2 reimbursable unsuccessful delivery attempts per case. The rules must also allow for delivery of aftercare services by staff who have qualifications below a bachelor's degree but have experience with the family, as long as the family provides consent. 5. It provides funding of $1,000,000 to establish an emergency sustainability fund to stabilize child residential treatment providers in danger of closing a facility or closing beds in a facility.

Committee Categories

Lori Gramlich (D)*,  Michael Brennan (D),  Flavia DeBrito (D),  Jack Ducharme (R),  Kathy Javner (R),  Marianne Moore (R),  Dan Shagoury (D),  Holly Stover (D),  Jeff Timberlake (R), 

HELD BY THE GOVERNOR. (on 07/08/2025)

Official Document