The Office of Mental Health and the Office of Addiction Services and Supports are advancing a joint certification framework for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics to ensure uninterrupted Medicaid billing and standardized oversight. Simultaneously, the Office of Addiction Services and Supports is updating outpatient substance use disorder standards by removing separate certification requirements for rehabilitation programs and integrating youth treatment services. In the home care sector, the Department of Health is executing an emergency rule that allows licensed practical nurses to conduct initial assessments for personal care services to alleviate workforce bottlenecks.

The legislature is moving comprehensive privacy mandates that require health information networks and electronic health record systems to segment and suppress sensitive health data, such as reproductive and gender-affirming care, at the patient’s direction. Lawmakers are also advancing legislation to require interoperability between the state prescription monitoring program and electronic health records to streamline prescriber access without navigating separate portals.

Additional legislative actions target insurance carriers with proposals that compress the timeline for utilization review determinations to seventy-two hours and prohibit preauthorization requirements for outpatient substance use disorder treatment. Furthermore, measures are progressing to mandate that health plans allocate twelve and a half percent of their overall expenditures toward primary care services, forcing insurers to submit corrective action plans if spending falls below this threshold.