WASHINGTON – In a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee markup this morning, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), co-author of the Mental Health Reform Act, called on his colleagues to support the bill and address the country’s mental health crisis. Murphy, along with HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), HELP Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), introduced the Mental Health Reform Act to bring our nation’s mental health care system into the 21st Century by embracing mental health research and innovation, giving states the flexibility they need to meet the needs of those suffering, and improving access to care. The bill unanimously passed the HELP Committee and now awaits a vote on the Senate floor.

“This is an important bill – this is going to make a difference, and I’m proud of the process that we went through in bringing together just a really impressive cross section of the mental health advocacy community to bring this bill before us today. In Connecticut, we went through a long process of holding over a dozen roundtables and town halls to solicit feedback,” Murphy said during the markup. “We authorize new programs in this bill. We strengthen parity laws. We clarify HIPAA laws to make sure that physicians can share information with caregivers – that’s something we’ve heard about over and over again, especially for the young adults who are in crisis. And then lastly, we incentivize integration between the physical health system and the mental health system. There’s still work to do here…but this is an incredibly important bipartisan foundation with which we can work. I’m so appreciative of the Chairman and Ranking Member, and Senator Cassidy for getting us to this day.”

Murphy authored the Mental Health Reform Act after holding more than a dozen roundtables with patient groups, advocacy groups, mental health professionals, and families across Connecticut. The bill being voted on today reflects their feedback. 

The full text of Murphy’s remarks is below. A video of his remarks can be accessed here.  

Mr. Chairman, I want to sincerely thank both you and Senator Murray for championing this bill. I want to thank you for allowing two very junior members of this committee to play a leadership role in helping to bring together a real, I think, important bipartisan compromise around the need to address the mental health crisis.

This is an important bill – this is going to make a difference, and I’m proud of the process that we went through in bringing together just a really impressive cross section of the mental health advocacy community to bring this bill before us today. We’ve got 36 groups that are part of the mental health liaison group, including the American Psychological Association, the National Council for Behavioral Health, the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of Social Workers, all supporting this bill. NAMI, the American Medical Association are supporting it as well.

In Connecticut, we went through a long process of holding over a dozen roundtables and town halls to solicit feedback. I know Senator Cassidy did the same, and this bill is going to make a difference because it attacks some of the lingering problems that we’ve identified in our mental health system today.

The first is that, because we haven’t authorized SAMHSA in such a long time, we’re not funding evidence-based practices in the way that we should. So we authorize new programs in this bill. For instance, bills to attack first episode psychoses, funding programs for early interventions for kids that show initial warning signs of serious mental illness, new funding programs to promote telehealth so that a pediatrician can get a child behavioral health specialist on the phone immediately to try to connect to an early symptom that they’re seeing.

We strengthen SAMHSA in other ways, like putting a medical director in place to make sure that all of their programs really are evidence-based. We strengthen parity laws as Senator Murray referenced. We’ve got a law on the books that says you have to have a mental health benefit that equates to your physical health benefit, but what we’ve realized is that in practice, that’s not how it works. And so we’ve put into this legislation new guidance for compliance for insurance companies and audits for plans that routinely show an inability to meet the requirements of the underlying law. We clarify HIPAA laws to make sure that physicians can share information with caregivers – that’s something we’ve heard about over and over again, especially for the young adults who are in crisis. Their parents often feel on the outside, we clarify HIPAA laws here.

And then lastly, we incentivize integration between the physical health system and the mental health system. We built a wholly separate mental health delivery system back in the 1960s. That was important because it allowed us to move forward with deinstitutionalization, but we now have to marry that system with our physical and primary health system.

As many have mentioned, there’s still work to do here. This Committee doesn’t have jurisdiction over funding, so we have to go to the floor with, I hope, a bipartisan commitment to come up with new resources to make sure that we’re addressing the severe lack of inpatient and outpatient capacity. But this is an incredibly important bipartisan foundation with which we can work. And I’m so appreciative of the Chairman and Ranking Member, and Senator Cassidy for getting us to this day.