State Representative Jim Struzzi recently introduced a piece of legislation that will be put towards accelerating the patient evaluation process in Pennsylvania hospital emergency rooms.
According to a news release, Struzzi introduced House Bill 1644 this week, also called the Pennsylvania Medicaid Care Transition Program Act, and it comes off the findings of a study commissioned through House Resolution 268, which Struzzi commissioned in 2019. The study suggested that a standardized procedure for hospitals to properly deliver behavioral health care to patients is needed.
Struzzi is asking the Department of Human Services to develop a statewide process to place patients that are enrolled in Medicaid and who possess behavioral health or other long-term care needs in appropriate care within a timely manner. He says “we simply need to do better in the area of behavioral health and focus more of our energy on an aspect of health care that seems to not be taken as seriously as it should be.”
The bill will now be sent to a committee for a vote.
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