Nevada Legislature takes up health care issues

Measures dealing with a mental health crisis in Las Vegas and expanded services for disabled Nevadans won committee approvals Monday, at the start of what some lawmakers called "health care week" at the Nevada Legislature.

The approvals coincided with a news conference held by Democrats to sketch out their plans for resolving various health-related issues.

The Assembly Health and Human Services Committee, focusing on a shortage of short-term psychiatric facilities in southern Nevada and Reno, endorsed a bill designed to bridge what the panel's chairwoman, Sheila Leslie, calls a gap in the governor's plan for mental health services.

In his proposed budget, Gov. Kenny Guinn asked for more than $100 million in new mental-health spending, including $45 million for the state's new 150-bed psychiatric hospital in Las Vegas.

Leslie, D-Reno, has said the plan leaves the state with a dire shortage of beds until 2006, when the new hospital opens. Her AB40 would commit about $600,000 in state funds to two triage centers. The centers handle mentally ill or substance abuse patients for up to 72 hours.

The Las Vegas center is funded jointly by hospitals, local governments and the state. The state, however, has not provided its share of the funding. Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said that if the Legislature didn't put up cash for the center the triage system would fall apart.

"The hospitals and local governments will pull out, no question about it." said Reilly. "I don't know what we would here in southern Nevada. There has to be an interim solution, it's critical."

Next on the committee's agenda is a measure to expand funding for the Clark County mental health court, a body that diverts the mentally ill away from county jails.

"Hopefully, we'll keep these people from using the jails, keep them from the revolving door," said the bill's author, Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas. "This also cuts back on the people using ERs and tying up services somebody else may need."

Horne said he also plans to sponsor a bill that would force doctors to undergo a criminal background checks.

The Senate Human Resources and Education Committee also took up health care issues Monday, approving four measures that would beef up disability services.

Panel members endorsed SB23, to allow disabled people to use stamps as legal signatures; SB36, to expand protection of service animals; SB22 to create an advisory board to help the disable transition out of high school; and SB24, to extend permits issued to the disabled that allow for faster government services.

But the most contentious health care proposals are still to come.

Democratic leaders have vowed to put pressure on private hospitals, which they say put profits over community needs. Leslie said her committee will explore reviving cost-containment measures that expired in 1999.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, wants to require hospitals to invest a percentage of their profits in the local communities before sending it back to out-of-state companies.

"We want to get hospitals to work with us, rather than holding us hostage," Perkins said.

The plan is modeled on a federal law that requires banks to loan money to local communities.

Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, said he'd have to make sure the hospitals are making sufficient profits, earning returns on investment and meeting stockholders' expectations before supporting a broad-based mandate for community investment.

Hettrick has his own proposal to deal with the state's health care problems. His Nevada Health Care Access Act would issue tax credits to employers who put money into health saving accounts for employees.

A proposal to allow Nevadans and the state to buy prescription drugs from Canada also is expected to find Republican opposition.

Hettrick said he believes such a move is illegal and unsustainable.

"It feels good but it not going to be a long-term solution to the problem," he said.