[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3917 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3917

To establish a home-based telemental health care demonstration program 
 for purposes of increasing mental health services in rural medically 
 underserved populations and for individuals in farming, fishing, and 
                         forestry occupations.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              June 9, 2020

   Mr. Rounds (for himself, Ms. Smith, Mr. Cramer, Ms. Collins, Mr. 
 Markey, Mr. Boozman, Mrs. Hyde-Smith, and Mr. Bennet) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish a home-based telemental health care demonstration program 
 for purposes of increasing mental health services in rural medically 
 underserved populations and for individuals in farming, fishing, and 
                         forestry occupations.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Home-Based Telemental Health Care 
Act of 2020''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds as follows:
            (1) It is estimated that 46,600,000 adults experience 
        mental illness in a given year in the United States, with 7.1 
        percent of adults in the United States living with major 
        depression and 19.1 percent of such adults living with anxiety 
        disorders.
            (2) According to the results from the 2017 National Survey 
        on Drug Use and Health, 19.1 percent of residents in rural 
        communities aged 18 or older have any mental illness, or 
        approximately 6,800,000 people; 4.9 percent, or nearly 
        1,700,000 rural residents experience serious thoughts of 
        suicide.
            (3) A study by the Centers for Disease Control and 
        Prevention suggests that people in farming, fishing, and 
        forestry occupations (referred to in this section as the 
        ``Triple-F'' industry) in the United States experienced rates 
        of 75 and 76 suicides per 100,000 people in 2012 and 2015, 
        respectively.
            (4) The COVID-19 pandemic has put additional stress on 
        people in the Triple-F population. The pandemic has caused 
        instability in the markets, especially as the virus has caused 
        a downturn in food service sales and has closed meat processing 
        plants across the Nation. This has left farmers with low 
        commodity prices and loss of revenue. Additional resources are 
        needed to support the mental health needs of this population.
            (5) While the prevalence of mental illness is similar among 
        rural and urban residents, the services available to each 
        population are very different. Mental health care needs are not 
        met in rural communities due to many challenges, including 
        accessibility issues due to transportation and geographic 
        isolation, the stigma of needing or receiving mental health 
        care, a lack of anonymity when seeking treatment, shortages of 
        mental health workforce professionals, and affordability due to 
        a high rate of uninsured residents.
            (6) Telemental health, which is the delivery of mental 
        health services using remote technologies when the patient and 
        provider are separated by distance, shows promise in helping to 
        alleviate the lack of mental health services in rural areas. 
        Traditional telemental health models involve care delivered to 
        a patient at an originating clinical site from a specialist 
        working at a distant site. Having the ability to reach mental 
        health professionals from a place of comfort, such as home, 
        from a personal device may reduce challenges faced in rural 
        areas and amongst Triple-F workers.
            (7) A clinical trial of 241 depressed elderly veterans, 
        which was conducted by the Medical University of South Carolina 
        and the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and 
        published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, found that 
        home-based telemental health for depression is well received by 
        patients and delivers as good a quality of life as in-person 
        visits.

SEC. 3. MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES DELIVERED TO RURAL UNDERSERVED 
              POPULATIONS VIA TELEMENTAL HEALTH CARE.

    Title III of the Public Health Service Act is amended by inserting 
after section 330K (42 U.S.C. 254c-16) the following:

``SEC. 330K-1. MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES DELIVERED TO RURAL UNDERSERVED 
              POPULATIONS VIA TELEMENTAL HEALTH CARE.

    ``(a) Definitions.--In this section--
            ``(1) the term `covered populations' means--
                    ``(A) medically underserved populations in rural 
                areas (as defined in section 1886(d)(2)(D) of the 
                Social Security Act); or
                    ``(B) populations engaged in a farming, fishing, or 
                forestry industry;
            ``(2) the term `eligible entity' means a public or 
        nonprofit private telemental health provider network that 
        offers services that include mental health services provided by 
        professionals trained in mental health;
            ``(3) the term `farming, fishing, or forestry industry' 
        means an occupation defined as a farming, fishing, or forestry 
        occupation by the Department of Labor in accordance with the 
        Standard Occupational Classification System;
            ``(4) the term `home-based telemental' means the use of 
        telemental health services where the patient is in his or her 
        own home or other place of comfort;
            ``(5) the term `medically underserved population' has the 
        meaning given such term in section 330(b);
            ``(6) the term `professional trained in mental health' 
        means a psychiatrist, a qualified mental health professional 
        (as defined in section 330K), or another mental health 
        professional acting under the direction of a psychiatrist;
            ``(7) the term `rural' has the meaning given such term by 
        the Office of Rural Health Policy of the Health Resources and 
        Services Administration; and
            ``(8) the term `telemental health' means the use of 
        electronic information and telecommunications technologies to 
        support long distance clinical health care, patient and 
        professional health-related education, public health, and 
        health administration.
    ``(b) Program Authorized.--The Secretary, acting through the 
Director of the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth of the Health 
Resources and Services Administration and in coordination with the 
Rural Health Liaison of the Department of Agriculture, shall award 
grants to eligible entities to establish demonstration projects for the 
provision of mental health services to covered populations in their 
homes, as delivered remotely by professionals trained in mental health 
using telemental health care.
    ``(c) Use of Funds.--Recipients of a grant under this section shall 
use the grant funds to--
            ``(1) deliver home-based telemental health services to 
        covered populations; and
            ``(2) develop comprehensive metrics to measure the quality 
        and impact of home-based telemental health services compared to 
        traditional in-person mental health care.
    ``(d) Report.--The Secretary, in consultation with the Secretary of 
Agriculture, 3 years after the date on which the program under this 
section commences, and 2 years thereafter, shall submit to the 
appropriate congressional committees reports on the impact and quality 
of care of home-based telemental health care services for covered 
populations.
    ``(e) Authorized Use of Funds.--Out of any amounts made available 
to the Secretary, up to $10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 
through 2025 may be allocated to carrying out the program under this 
section.''.
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