House passes long-delayed mental health reform legislation

Article from the AMA Morning Rounds, 7/7/2016

The Wall Street Journal (7/6, Radnofsky, Subscription Publication) reports that on July 6, by a vote of 422 to 2, the House of Representatives passed HR 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act.

The Hill (7/6, Sullivan) reports that the Senate also has a “parallel, bipartisan” measure. Now, changes to the House version of the proposed legislation “have made it similar to the Senate bill.” But, even though “mental health reform has been a rare area where both parties are looking to enact legislation,” the effort in the Senate “has been stalled over gun politics, and it is unclear whether a bill can be signed into law this year.”

TIME (7/6, Ockerman) points out the House bill, “introduced by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA)…would potentially address a nationwide shortage of psychiatric beds and child psychiatrists, in addition to creating the federal position of assistant secretary for mental health and substance use disorders, to be filled by a licensed psychiatrist or psychologist and take over the responsibilities of the administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.”