House Bill 1186

AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE LICENSING BOARDS OF CERTAIN HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS TO ADOPT REGULATIONS APPLICABLE TO THEIR LICENSEES TO REQUIRE THEM TO PROVIDE COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATIONS OF THEIR PATIENTS AND CLIENTS TO DETERMINE WHETHER A PERSON WITH SYMPTOMS OF OR A DIAGNOSIS OF A NEUROBIOLOGICAL DISORDER HAS A MEDICAL ILLNESS THAT MAY LEAD OR MAY HAVE LED TO A MISDIAGNOSIS, OR WHETHER A PERSON WHO WAS CORRECTLY DIAGNOSED WITH A NEUROBIOLOGICAL DISORDER MAY ALSO HAVE AN UNDERLYING UNDIAGNOSED MEDICAL ILLNESS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Not later than October 1, 2019, the State Board of Medical Licensure, the Mississippi Board of Nursing, the Mississippi Board of Psychology, the State Board of Examiners for Licensed Professional Counselors and the Board of Examiners for Social Workers and Marriage and Family Therapists each shall adopt regulations applicable to the licensees under their jurisdiction to require them to provide comprehensive examinations and evaluations of their patients and clients to determine whether a person with symptoms of or a diagnosis of mental illness or a neurobiological disorder has a medical illness or disorder that may lead or may have led to a misdiagnosis, or whether a person who was correctly diagnosed with mental illness or a neurobiological disorder may also have an underlying undiagnosed medical illness or disorder. The purpose of those regulations is to recognize that medical conditions may present as psychotic or psychiatric disorders or as depression, that psychiatric problems may be caused by some physical illness, and that to provide proper diagnosis and treatment of persons with symptoms of or a diagnosis of mental illness or a neurobiological disorder, medical causes of psychiatric symptoms should always be considered as a possibility for the symptoms.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2019.