All Roll Calls
Yes: 325 • No: 1
KansasHB 22492025–2026 Regular SessionHouseWALLET
Requiring the secretary for aging and disability services to grant physical environment waivers for certain rural emergency hospitals to provide skilled nursing facility care and establishing the south central regional mental health hospital.
Sponsored By: Sponsor information unavailable
Signed by Governor
public health and welfarehealth and human services
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
9 provisions identified: 6 benefits, 0 costs, 3 mixed.
New South Central state mental hospital
The law creates the South Central Regional Mental Health Hospital and opens it under KDADS rules. It also adds a secure unit there, run by Larned’s superintendent, for adults ordered by criminal courts or moved from corrections or KDADS hospitals. The service area is Sedgwick, Butler, Cowley, Harvey, and Sumner counties, and a Wichita site is authorized. A hospital fee fund holds patient charges and other receipts, and KDADS sets maximum daily patient charges for this state hospital. State fee‑fund money cannot support alcohol treatment programs at this hospital.
Easier transfers to Kansas veterans homes
Patients at certain state hospitals can be moved to the Kansas Soldiers’ Home or the Kansas Veterans’ Home if the patient or a family member meets the military service rules. The secretary and the state veterans services director must approve. No transfer is allowed if the person is likely to harm themselves or others, or if it would deny admission to someone entitled to it.
More nursing beds at rural emergency hospitals
Eligible rural emergency hospitals can convert up to 10 swing beds into skilled nursing beds if they apply for a waiver. The hospital must now be licensed as a rural emergency hospital, have been a hospital before that, and have run SNF or critical access swing bed services for at least 12 months with no immediate‑jeopardy finding. This expands local nursing care options in rural areas.
More training sites for nurses and doctors
The South Central Regional Mental Health Hospital is an approved site for nursing scholarships that require service at a listed facility. Medical student loan recipients can also meet service by doing at least 100 on‑site hours per month there. This adds local placement options in south‑central Kansas.
Tougher penalties for assaulting care staff
Battery against a mental health employee by a person in KDADS custody while the employee is on duty is a severity level 7 person felony. Battery against a healthcare provider on duty is a class A person misdemeanor. The law raises penalties to protect care staff and patients.
State mental hospitals kept under state control
State agencies cannot outsource or privatize Larned, Osawatomie, the South Central hospital, or any state‑run mental‑health facility unless the Legislature clearly authorizes it. The ban also covers transfers of rated bed capacity. These hospitals stay under state control unless lawmakers approve changes.
New hospital added to care and privacy rules
The law adds the new hospital to the main care‑and‑treatment and senior‑care laws as a state psychiatric hospital. It must follow incident‑reporting and confidentiality rules like other state hospitals and is included in insurer and provider‑availability rules. Guardians and courts can seek to place a ward there, and the hospital is listed with other state institutions and social‑welfare institutions. State hospitals, including this one, count as eligible facilities for alcohol and drug care under the substance‑use law.
Broader detox admissions and new petition rules
Any state hospital detox unit can now admit someone for emergency observation and treatment on a written request from a law‑enforcement officer. The request must list the person’s ID, facts, and who will file a case by the next business day. A court petition for involuntary commitment must say why immediate detention is needed, where detention is sought, and, if not a state‑hospital detox unit, that the facility agreed to take the person. Larned, Osawatomie, and the South Central hospital may also admit inmates for detox or substance‑use care when it is clinically needed.
Old related statutes repealed by law
The law repeals many named sections across aging, disability, hospital, insurance, and mental‑health laws. Those sections no longer apply. Real‑world effects depend on what each repealed section covered.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsors
There is no primary sponsor on record.
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
House vote • 4/23/2026
Yea: 123 Nay: 1
Yes: 123 • No: 1
House vote • 4/23/2026
Yea: 40 Nay: 0
Yes: 40 • No: 0
House vote • 4/23/2026
Yea: 40 Nay: 0
Yes: 40 • No: 0
House vote • 4/23/2026
Yea: 122 Nay: 0
Yes: 122 • No: 0
Actions Timeline
Engrossed on Monday, March 31, 2025
4/10/2025HouseEnrolled and presented to Governor on Friday, April 4, 2025
4/10/2025HouseApproved by Governor on Tuesday, April 8, 2025
4/10/2025HouseConference Committee Report was adopted; Yea: 123 Nay: 1
3/27/2025HouseConference committee report now available
3/26/2025SenateConference Committee Report was adopted; Yea: 40 Nay: 0
3/26/2025SenateNonconcurred with amendments; Conference Committee requested; appointed Representative Carpenter, W. , Representative Bryce and Representative Ruiz, S. as conferees
3/20/2025HouseMotion to accede adopted; Senator Gossage, Senator Clifford and Senator Holscher appointed as conferees
3/20/2025SenateCommittee of the Whole - Committee Report be adopted
3/19/2025SenateCommittee of the Whole - Be passed as amended
3/19/2025SenateEmergency Final Action - Passed as amended; Yea: 40 Nay: 0
3/19/2025SenateCommittee Report recommending bill be passed as amended by Committee on Public Health and Welfare
3/17/2025SenateHearing: Tuesday, March 11, 2025, 8:30 AM Room 142-S
3/11/2025SenateReferred to Committee on Public Health and Welfare
2/26/2025SenateReceived and Introduced
2/25/2025SenateFinal Action - Passed; Yea: 122 Nay: 0
2/20/2025HouseCommittee of the Whole - Be passed
2/19/2025HouseCommittee Report recommending bill be passed by Committee on Health and Human Services
2/14/2025HouseHearing: Thursday, February 13, 2025, 1:30 PM Room 112-N
2/13/2025HouseHearing: Wednesday, February 12, 2025, 1:30 PM Room 112-N - CANCELED
2/12/2025HouseIntroduced
2/4/2025HouseReferred to Committee on Health and Human Services
2/4/2025House
Bill Text
As Amended by Senate Committee
As introduced
Enrolled
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