Mental Health Reimbursements (Audio)

Air Date:02/10/2010

By Jenifer Jones

The Senate passed a bill that revises the way counties are reimbursed for certain mental health services. Senator Stan Adelstein of Rapid City is a sponsor of the bill. He says currently, if someone in the state is in danger of hurting themselves or someone else, they must be examined by a qualified mental health care committee. Adelstein says some counties don't reimburse for Native residents who come before the board in Pennington County. Instead, the county is asked to try and collect payment from the Indian Health Service. Senate Bill 92 says the county where a person resides must pay the fee. Senator Jean Hunhoff of Yankton supports the bill. She says it creates consistency.

"So what we're trying to do is level the playing field in the sense that those boards are getting paid for their services," Hunhoff says. "Otherwise, they're not getting paid for those services and you're not going to have people serve on those boards, then you're not going to be able to do involuntary commitments, and then we're going to have the potential people hurting themselves or someone else. So it's a parity issue to get that covered."

The bill next moves on to a House committee.

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