HB 19: Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, Department of; create and maintain electronic inpatient psychiatric bed registry; require

Right now Georgia has no central, real-time way to see which psychiatric hospital beds are open across the state, which can slow down placing someone in crisis. House Bill 19, called the "Mental Health Availability and Access Act," would require the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to create and run a web-based registry listing available inpatient psychiatric beds, sorted by patient gender, age, acuteness of illness, and diagnosis. Psychiatric facilities and other providers the department identifies would have to report their open bed counts as close to real time as possible. The registry would be accessible to health plans, hospitals, and caregivers, and the department could hire a private contractor to run it. An advisory committee with representatives from the department, hospitals, law enforcement, and families would help set reporting rules. The department must send quarterly progress reports to four legislative health committees starting October 1, 2025, and must share registry data with the operator of the Georgia Crisis and Access Line.

• Requires the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to build and run a statewide electronic registry of open inpatient psychiatric beds.
• Requires psychiatric facilities and other designated providers to report bed availability to the department on a near real-time basis.
• Allows the department to hire a private company to create, operate, or maintain the registry instead of doing it in-house.
• Creates an advisory committee with members from the department, hospitals, law enforcement, and families to guide the registry's rules.
• Requires quarterly progress reports to four House and Senate health committees starting October 1, 2025.
• Requires the department to share all registry data with whoever operates the Georgia Crisis and Access Line.

Psychiatric hospitals and other mental health providers, who must report bed availability; health plans and community mental health programs, who would gain access to the registry; families and caregivers seeking psychiatric care; law enforcement involved in mental health crises; and the state department that must build and run the system.

Families, hospitals, and crisis responders trying to find an open psychiatric bed for someone in a mental health emergency would have a single, near real-time source to check instead of calling facilities individually, which could speed up placement decisions during a crisis.

• Section 1 names the bill the 'Mental Health Availability and Access Act.'
• Section 2 adds new Code Section 37-3-9, directing the department to build a web-based registry tracking beds by gender, acuteness, age, and diagnosis, accessible on the department's website.
• Subsection (b)(2) lets the department contract with a private entity to create, operate, or maintain the registry.
• Subsection (c) requires psychiatric facilities and identified providers to report bed availability to the department as close to real time as practicable.
• Subsection (d) lists who can access the registry, including health plans, hospitals, community mental health programs, and caregivers.
• Subsection (e) creates an advisory committee with representatives from the department, the Department of Community Health, psychiatric facilities, end users, families and advocates, and law enforcement.
• Subsection (g) requires quarterly reports on registry progress starting October 1, 2025, to specified House and Senate health committees.
• Subsection (i) requires the department to give all registry data to the entity operating the Georgia Crisis and Access Line.

1. 2025-02-11House Withdrawn Bill/Res Consideration (Cámara de Representantes)
2. 2025-01-15House Second Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
3. 2025-01-14House First Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
4. 2025-01-13House Hopper (Cámara de Representantes)

• Sandra Scott (D, HD-076)Patrocinador principal
• Kim Schofield (D, HD-063)
• Viola Davis (D, HD-087)

• mental health care
• psychiatric hospital beds
• health data registry
• behavioral health department
• crisis response