AN ACT appropriating funds to the department of health and human services to expand the statewide telepsychiatry program (NC‑STEP).

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Central Management and Support, Office of Rural Health, the sum of one million dollars ($1,000,000) in recurring funds for each year of the 2021‑2023 fiscal biennium, to be allocated to the East Carolina University Center for Telepsychiatry and e‑Behavioral Health for the statewide telepsychiatry program established under G.S. 143B‑139.4B, known as NC‑STeP. These funds shall be used to establish five new STeP program sites in underserved areas across the state, in an integrated care model of community‑based behavioral health. The program will be embedded in currently operational primary care clinics and will provide evidence‑based, outpatient mental health care to patients who currently lack access to this care.

SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2021.