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Senate Bill 481 History
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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
Senate Bill No. 481
(By Senators Palumbo, Unger, Jenkins and Tucker)
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[Introduced March 7, 2013; referred to the Committee on Health
and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on the Judiciary .]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §27-4-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to juvenile mental health,
intellectual disability and addiction; permitting acceptance
of a notarized application in lieu of in-person application
for certain voluntary hospitalization; allowing use of article
five; chapter twenty-seven of said code for juveniles in
certain situations; requiring parents or guardians to
transport minors for voluntary hospitalization; creating
exceptions to that requirement by affidavit to circuit court,
mental hygiene commissioner or magistrate court; requiring
transfer by county sheriff upon order of circuit court, mental
hygiene commissioner or magistrate court; providing for
payment of voluntary hospitalization for juveniles in certain
circumstances; and requiring mental health facilities to make their application immediately accessible in certain
situations.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §27-4-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. VOLUNTARY HOSPITALIZATION.
§27-4-1. Authority to receive voluntary patients.
(a) The chief medical officer of a mental health facility,
subject to the availability of suitable accommodations and to the
rules promulgated by the board of health, shall admit for
diagnosis, care and treatment any individual:
(a) (1) Over eighteen Eighteen years of age or older who is
mentally ill, intellectually disabled or addicted or who has
manifested symptoms of mental illness, intellectual disability or
addiction and who makes application for hospitalization; or
(b) (2) Under eighteen years of age who is mentally ill,
intellectually disabled or addicted or who has manifested symptoms
of mental illness, intellectual disability or addiction and where
there is an application for hospitalization, either made in person
at the time of admission or by a notarized written application
submitted by facsimile, e-mail or in person prior to, or at the
time of, admission,
therefor in on his or her behalf as follows:
_______________(1) (A) By the parents of such person;
(2) (B) If only one parent is living, then by such parent;
(3) (C) If the parents are living separate and apart, then by
the parent who has the custody of such person; or
(4) (D) If there is a guardian who has legal custody of such
person, then by such guardian.
(5) (E) If the subject person under eighteen years of age is
an emancipated minor, the admission of that person as a voluntary
patient shall be conditioned upon the consent of the patient.
(F) If the application for the subject person under eighteen
years of age does not satisfy one of paragraphs (A) through (E) of
this subdivision, the provisions of article five of this chapter
shall be followed with respect to any hospitalization.
_______________(b) For any application for hospitalization made pursuant to
subdivision (2) of subsection (a) of this section, the person
making the application shall transport the minor to the mental
health facility, except as provided in this subsection. If the
minor is violent or combative or the parent or guardian faces other
circumstances that make the parent or guardian unable to transport
the minor to the mental health facility, the parent or guardian may
file an affidavit with the circuit court of the county in which the
minor resides or of the county in which the minor may be found.
The parent or guardian shall give information and state facts in
the affidavit as may be required by the form provided for this purpose by the Supreme Court of Appeals. Upon ex parte review of
the affidavit, a mental hygiene commissioner or circuit court
judge, or when none are available the magistrate designated
pursuant to article five of this chapter, may determine that the
parent or guardian is unable to transport the minor for voluntary
hospitalization and, if such a determination is made, shall enter
an order requiring the sheriff of that county to transport the
minor to the mental health facility.
(c) No person under eighteen years of age may be admitted
under this section to any state hospital unless the person has
first been reviewed and evaluated by a local mental health facility
and recommended for admission.
(d) If the candidate for voluntary admission is a minor who is
fourteen years of age or older, the admitting health care facility
shall determine if the minor consents to or objects to his or her
admission to the facility. If the parent or guardian who requested
the minor's admission under this section revokes his or her consent
at any time, or if the minor fourteen years of age or older objects
at any time to his or her further treatment, the minor shall be
discharged within ninety-six hours to the custody of the consenting
parent or guardian, unless the chief medical officer of the mental
health facility files a petition for involuntary hospitalization,
pursuant to the provisions of section three of this article, or the minor's continued hospitalization is authorized as an involuntary
hospitalization pursuant to the provisions of article five of this
chapter: Provided, That, if the ninety-six hour time period would
result in the minor being discharged and released on a Saturday, a
Sunday or a holiday on which the court is closed, the period of
time in which the patient shall be released by the facility shall
be extended until the next day which is not a Saturday, Sunday or
legal holiday on which the court is lawfully closed.
(e) In the event a person under the age of eighteen is
voluntarily hospitalized pursuant to this section and is, or those
legally obligated to pay for the minor's care are, unable to pay
for the hospitalization and has no applicable insurance coverage,
including, but not limited to, private insurance or Medicaid, the
Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources shall
transfer funds for the purpose of reimbursing the mental health
facility for services provided in an amount not to exceed the cost
of involuntary hospitalization of an individual. Nothing in this
section may be construed to obligate the State of West Virginia for
costs of voluntary hospitalizations of persons eighteen years of
age or older permitted by the provisions of this section.
(f) For the purposes of this section, all mental health
facilities in this state shall make a blank copy of their
application for admission immediately available to any person or entity who requests the application. The application is
"immediately available" if it is promptly sent by facsimile or e-
mail to the requesting person or entity, or available through other
immediate electronic means, such as posting the blank application
on the facility's public website.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify the process for
voluntary commitment and transport of juveniles in need of mental
health or addiction treatment and provide for payment of juvenile
mental health treatment when the individual is not covered by
insurance.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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