Effective January 1, 2017, Assembly Bill (AB) 403 (Chaptered 773, Statues of 2015) established a new community care facility category called Short-term residential therapeutic program (STRTP) governed by the Continuum of Care Reform. A STRTP is a residential facility operated by a public agency or private organization that provides an integrated program of specialized and intensive care and supervision, services and supports, treatment, and short-term care and supervision to children and nonminor dependents. Remi Vista is in the process of converting from a group home rate classification level 12 to a STRTP provider in 2018.
Effective July 1, 2017, AB 1299 requires County Mental Health Plans and Child Welfare to implement presumptive transfer for foster youth specialty mental health services. Presumptive transfer means a prompt transfer of the responsibility for the provision of, or arranging, and payment for specialty mental health services from the county of original jurisdiction to the county in which the foster youth resides. Remi Vista has provided residential and specialty mental health services to Shasta County youth for many years. Remi Vista offers a variety of mental health treatment services for Medi-Cal beneficiaries in their residential program. Due to AB403 statutory changes there has been an increased focus on local placements at the facility to ensure our foster and juvenile probation youth are placed in their county of jurisdiction. Due to AB 1299 statutory changes there is a number of counties relinquishing the responsibility of specialty mental health services of their foster youth onto Shasta County via presumptive transfer.
Services provided are to youth with serious mental health issues to reduce behaviors and symptoms resulting from a mental illness that can require acute psychiatric hospitalization and the need for highly structured and supervised placement. The goal of placement in these facilities is to improve the youth’s functioning such that the youth can move to a lower level of care when appropriate.
Medically necessary mental health services for eligible Medi-Cal beneficiaries are considered an entitlement, and are part of Shasta County’s Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) Managed Care Plan responsibility. Specifically, HHSA is responsible for determining medical necessity, authorizing, and paying for these services. Youth who are eligible for services through this contract include those who are placed with Remi Vista in out-of-home care by HHSA, the Probation Department, voluntarily by parents through the Adoption Assistance Program, or through presumptive transfer from another county. Progress for each individual is evaluated through quarterly reports on the frequency of identified behaviors that resulted in or places the youth at risk of a higher level of care, as well as tracking of progress toward individual treatment goals.