LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Michael Webber sponsored an eight-bill package to strengthen protections for mental healthcare patients by requiring the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and the Office of Recipient Rights (ORR) to implement reforms recommended after a 2025 investigation by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG).

“Since joining the Senate, I’ve heard heartbreaking stories from families who believed the system would protect their loved ones but instead felt abandoned,” Webber said. “These reforms are about restoring trust, making sure complaints are taken seriously and providing families peace of mind by knowing someone is watching out for those who can’t always protect themselves.

“Michigan’s mental healthcare system is broken. Healthcare facilities must be places of healing, hope and recovery. Our public and private providers must ensure that patient rights are protected when receiving care.”

The legislation responds to findings released last September in an independent audit of the ORR, the agency within MDHHS responsible for protecting the rights of people receiving public mental health services.

Webber requested the audit after hearing tragic accounts from former patients and families with loved ones who received care at the former Hawthorn Center.

The OAG’s report found:

• Nearly 30% of sampled complaints alleging abuse, neglect, serious injury or death were not retrieved or acted on until two to 12 days after being filed. The average was six days, even though ORR training materials indicate this should have been done within 24 hours.
• More than 10% of sampled complaints lacked an ORR date stamp, making it impossible to determine whether action was timely.
• Video surveillance and audio recording systems at the five state psychiatric hospitals were often missing or not working. In more than 40% of the investigations reviewed, video and/or audio evidence could have helped support ORR’s findings.
• ORR had no process to monitor state psychiatric hospitals’ incident reports, which could have led to undetected and/or unreported patient rights violations.
• ORR doesn’t sufficiently document or retain information from its annual or on-site reviews on how community mental health services (CMHs) and licensed psychiatric hospitals (LPHs) are managing their own recipient rights systems to protect patient rights.

Webber’s legislation would:

• Require complaints submitted through drop boxes to be date-stamped and collected daily, and complaints alleging abuse, neglect, serious injury or death must be investigated within 24 hours.
• Require ORR to consider a complaint received when it is submitted rather than when it is collected.
• Require video and audio capabilities at state psychiatric hospitals to be maintained and operational. If the systems go offline, facilities must immediately notify all recipient rights officers at the facility, the hospital director, the ORR director and members of the MDHHS-ORR Recipient Rights Advisory Committee.
• Mandate ORR to retain monitoring reports and establish a process to monitor incident reports at state psychiatric hospitals so patient complaints don’t fall through the cracks.
• Require ORR to document and retain all review findings for CMHs and LPHs by codifying on-site reviews of private LPHs in law, clarifying requirements for ORR’s annual reviews and requiring CMHs and LPHs to retain those records.
• Require ORR reviews of CMHs and LPHs to be made publicly available and provided to the relevant standing legislative committees.
• Prohibit family members of current or former members of a CMH board, a Prepaid Inpatient Health Plan board or a LPH board from serving on a recipient rights advisory committee.
• Mandate members of recipient rights advisory committees at CMHs and LPHs to complete annual ORR recipient rights training.
• Require ORR contact information to be added to patient rights informational booklets.

“My legislation would help fix Michigan’s broken mental healthcare system by implementing reforms to address the auditor general’s findings,” Webber said.

Senate Bills 1115-1122 have been turned in and are expected to be formally introduced during the Senate’s next session day on Wednesday, July 15.

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