§ 143B-139.4 — Department of Health and Human Services; authority to assist private nonprofit organizations

North Carolina § 143B-139.4

• Jurisdiction: North Carolina
• Ch. 143B: Executive Organization Act of 1973
• Art. 3: Department of Health and Human Services

Text

(a) The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services may allow employees of the Department or provide other appropriate services to assist any private nonprofit organization which works directly with services or programs of the Department and whose sole purpose is to support the services and programs of the Department. Except as provided in G.S. 143B-164.18, a Department employee shall be allowed to work with an organization no more than 20 hours in any one month. These services are not subject to the provisions of Chapter 150B of the General Statutes.
(b) A private, nonprofit organization that receives employee assistance or other appropriate services in accordance with subsection (a) of this section, shall document all contributions received, including employee time, supplies, materials, equipment, and physical space. The documentation shall also provide an estimated value of all contributions received as well as any compensation paid to or bonuses received by State employees. This documentation shall be submitted annually to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in a format approved by the Secretary. Nonprofit organizations with less than five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) in annual income shall submit an affidavit or annual audit from the chief officer of the organization providing and attesting to the financial condition of the organization and the expenditure of funds or use of State employee services or other State services, within six months from the nonprofit's fiscal year end. The board of directors of each private, nonprofit organization with an annual income of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) or more shall secure and pay for the services of the State Auditor's Office or employ a certified public accountant to conduct an annual audit of the financial accounts of the organization. The board of directors shall transmit to the Secretary of the Department a copy of the annual financial audit report of the private nonprofit organization. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to relieve the private, nonprofit organization from other applicable reporting requirements established by law.
(c) Notwithstanding the limitations of subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services may assign employees of the Office of Rural Health and Resource Development to serve as in-kind match to nonprofit organizations working to establish health care programs that will improve health care access while controlling costs. (1987, c. 634, s. 1; 1997-443, s. 11A.118(a); 1999-237, s. 11.3; 2001-412, s. 3; 2006-66, s. 10.19.)
§ 143B-139.4A. Office of Rural Health to work with organizations for expansion of mental health and substance abuse services.
The North Carolina Office of Rural Health of the Department of Health and Human Services, in conjunction with the North Carolina Foundation for Advanced Health Programs through the Center of Excellence in Integrated Care, the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services, the Governor's Institute on Substance Abuse, North Carolina Community Care Networks, Inc., the North Carolina Community Health Center Association, and other professional associations, shall work to expand the collocation in primary care practices serving the adult population of licensed health professionals trained in providing mental health and substance abuse services. (2011-185, s. 5; 2015-241, s. 12A.16(b); 2023-65, s. 5.2(b).)
§ 143B-139.4B. Office of Rural Health to oversee and monitor establishment and administration of statewide telepsychiatry program.
(a) The following definitions apply in this section:
(1) Community-based site. - Community-based health care setting to include, but not limited to, public health department, rural health center, rural health clinic, federally qualified health center, school-based health center, free and charitable clinic that accepts reimbursement.
(1a) Consultant site. - The hospital or other site at which the consulting provider is physically located at the time the consulting provider delivers the mental health or substance abuse care by means of telepsychiatry.
(1b) Consulting provider. - A physician or other health care provider licensed in this State to provide mental health or substance abuse care.
(2) Hospital. - A facility licensed under Chapter 131E or Chapter 122C of the General Statutes, or a State facility listed in G.S. 122C-181.
(3) Referring site. - The hospital or approved community-based site at which the patient is physically located.
(4) Telepsychiatry. - The delivery of mental health or substance abuse care, including diagnosis or treatment, by means of two-way real-time interactive audio and video by a consulting provider at a consultant site to an individual patient at a referring site. The term does not include the standard use of telephones, facsimile transmissions, unsecured electronic mail, or a combination of these in the course of care.
(5) Recodified as G.S. 143B-139.4B(a)(1b) by Session Laws 2018-44, s. 15.1, effective July 1, 2018.
(b) The North Carolina Office of Rural Health shall oversee the establishment and administration of a statewide telepsychiatry program that allows referring sites to utilize consulting providers at a consultant site to provide timely psychiatric assessment and rapid initiation of treatment for patients at the referring emergency department site experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis, or for patients in need of mental health or substance abuse care at an approved community-based site. Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 3 of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes or any other provision of law, the Office of Rural Health shall contract with East Carolina University Center for Telepsychiatry and e-Behavioral Health to administer the telepsychiatry program. The contract shall include a provision requiring East Carolina University Center for Telepsychiatry and e-Behavioral Health to work toward implementing this program on a statewide basis by no later than January 1, 2014, and to report annually to the Office of Rural Health on the following performance measures:
(1) Number of consultant sites and referring sites participating in the program.
(2) Number of psychiatric assessments conducted under the program, reported by site or region.
(3) Length of stay of patients receiving telepsychiatry services in the emergency departments of hospitals participating in the program, reported by disposition.
(4) Number of involuntary commitments recommended as a result of psychiatric assessments conducted by consulting providers under the program, reported by site or region and by year, and compared to the number of involuntary commitments recommended prior to implementation of this program.
(c) The Office of Rural Health shall have all of the following powers and duties relative to the statewide telepsychiatry program:
(1) Ongoing oversight and monitoring of the program.
(2) Ongoing monitoring of the performance of East Carolina University Center for Telepsychiatry and e-Behavioral Health under its contract with the Department, including all of the following:
a. Review of the performance measures described in subsection (b) of this section.
b. Annual site visits to East Carolina University Center for Telepsychiatry and e-Behavioral Health.
(3) Facilitation of program linkages with critical access hospitals and small rural hospitals.
(4) Conducting visits to referring sites and consultant sites to monitor implementation of the program; and upon implementation, conducting these site visits at least once annually.
(5) Addressing barriers and concerns identified by consulting providers, consultant sites, and referring sites participating in the program.
(6) Encouraging participation in the program by all potential consultant sites, consulting providers, and referring sites throughout the State and promoting continued participation in the program by consultant sites, consulting providers, and referring sites throughout the State.
(7) Compiling a list of recommendations for future tele-health initiatives, based on operation of the statewide telepsychiatry program.
(8) Reviewing on a quarterly basis the financial statements of East Carolina University Center for Telepsychiatry and e-Behavioral Health related to the telepsychiatry program in order to compare and monitor projected and actual program costs.
(9) Annually reporting to the Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services and the Fiscal Research Division on or before November 1 on the operation and effectiveness of the program. The report shall include information on each of the performance measures described in subsection (b) of this section.
(d) The Department shall adopt rules necessary to ensure the health and safety of patients who receive care, diagnosis, or treatment under the telepsychiatry program authorized by this section. (2013-360, s. 12A.2B(b); 2015-241, s. 12A.16(b); 2018-44, s. 15.1; 2019-177, s. 8.)
§ 143B-139.4C. Office of Rural Health; administration of loan repayment programs.
(a) The Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Rural Health, shall use funds appropriated to the Department for loan repayment to medical, dental, and psychiatric providers practicing in State hospitals or in rural or medically underserved communities in this State to combine the following loan repayment programs in order to achieve efficient and effective management of these programs:
(1) The Physician Loan Repayment Program.
(2) The Psychiatric Loan Repayment Program.
(3) The Loan Repayment Initiative at State Facilities.
(b) These funds may be used for the following additional purposes:
(1) Continued funding of the State Loan Repayment Program for primary care providers and expansion of State incentives to general surgeons practicing in Critical Access Hospitals located across the State.
(2) Expansion of the State Loan Repayment Program to include eligible providers residing in North Carolina who use telemedicine in rural and underserved areas. (2017-57, s. 11A.9; 2018-88, s. 3(a).)
§ 143B-139.4D. Department of Health and Human Services; coordination of health information technology.
(a) The Department of Health and Human Services, in cooperation with the State Chief Information Officer, shall coordinate health information technology policies and programs within the State of North Carolina. The goal of the Chief Information Officer of the Department of Health and Human Services in coordinating State health information technology policy and programs shall be to avoid duplication of efforts and to ensure that each State agency, public entity, and private entity that undertakes health information technology activities does so within the area of its greatest expertise and technical capability and in a manner that supports coordinated State and national goals, which shall include at least all of the following:
(1) Ensuring that patient health information is secure and protected, in accordance with applicable law.
(2) Improving health care quality, reducing medical errors, reducing health disparities, and advancing the delivery of patient-centered medical care.
(3) Providing appropriate information to guide medical decisions at the time and place of care.
(4) Ensuring meaningful public input into health information technology infrastructure development.
(5) Improving the coordination of information among hospitals, laboratories, physicians' offices, and other entities through an effective infrastructure for the secure and authorized exchange of health care information.
(6) Improving public health services and facilitating early identification and rapid response to public health threats and emergencies, including bioterrorist events and infectious disease outbreaks.
(7) Facilitating health and clinical research.
(8) Promoting early detection, prevention, and management of chronic diseases.
(b) The Department, in cooperation with the Department of Information Technology, shall establish and direct a health information technology management structure that is efficient and transparent and that is compatible with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (National Coordinator) governance mechanism. The health information technology management structure shall be responsible for all of the following:
(1) Developing a State Plan for implementing and ensuring compliance with national health information technology standards and for the most efficient, effective, and widespread adoption of health information technology.
(2) Ensuring that (i) specific populations are effectively integrated into the State Plan, including aging populations, populations requiring mental health services, and populations utilizing the public health system, and (ii) unserved and underserved populations receive priority consideration for health information technology support.
(3) Identifying all health information technology stakeholders and soliciting feedback and participation from each stakeholder in the development of the State Plan.
(4) Ensuring that existing health information technology capabilities are considered and incorporated into the State Plan.
(5) Identifying and eliminating conflicting health information technology efforts where necessary.
(6) Identifying available resources for the implementation, operation, and maintenance of health information technology, including identifying resources and available opportunities for North Carolina institutions of higher education.
(7) Ensuring that potential State Plan participants are aware of health information technology policies and programs and the opportunity for improved health information technology.
(8) Monitoring health information technology efforts and initiatives in other states and replicating successful efforts and initiatives in North Carolina.
(9) Monitoring the development of the National Coordinator's strategic plan and ensuring that all stakeholders are aware of and in compliance with its requirements.
(10) Monitoring the progress and recommendations of the Health Information Technology Policy and Standards Committee and ensuring that all stakeholders remain informed of the Committee's recommendations.
(11) Monitoring all studies and reports provided to the United States Congress and reporting to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Information Technology and the Fiscal Research Division on the impact of report recommendations on State efforts to implement coordinated health information technology. (2017-57, s. 11A.1; 2018-5, s. 11A.1.)