A House subcommittee has unanimously advanced a bill that would direct the state to increase its number of inpatient psychiatric beds at the state’s two mental health facilities from 92 to 184 at minimum by July 2027.
The bill directs the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to submit a waiver to the federal government by Oct.1 so it can use Medicaid funds to double its beds at its two mental health facilities.
Rep. Craig Johnson, R-Independence, represents a district where one of the state’s mental health facilities is located.
“Our jails end up being an emergency room for the folks that need mental health care. The emergency rooms at the hospitals, that's not the place to have our folks that are in mental health need,” Johnson said. “We know that.”
Rep. Timi Brown-Powers, D-Waterloo, said the bill will help sheriffs’ departments, which are spending a lot of time and resources responding to mental health emergency calls.
“I also know that is a huge issue in my ERs, where folks are actually living in those ERs,” Brown-Powers said. “It's a lot more expensive to live in an ER room than it is to get into a bed and have treatment.”
A lobbyist for Iowa HHS told the subcommittee the agency will need longer than the current deadline to be ready to submit the waiver and it could take the feds years to approve it.