A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT allowing providers of mental health, developmental disabilities, or substance abuse services to serve as uncompensated, court‑appointed guardians to unrelated clients.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 35A‑1213(f) reads as rewritten:
"(f)	An individual who contracts with or is employed by an entity that contracts with a local management entity (LME) for the delivery of mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse services may not serve as a guardian for a ward for whom the individual or entity is providing these services, unless the individual (i) is a parent of that ward, (ii) is a member of the ward's immediate family who is under contract with a local management entity (LME) for the delivery of mental health, developmental disabilities, and substance abuse services and is serving as a guardian as of January 1, 2013, or (iii) is not biologically related to the ward and was serving on March 1, 2013, as a guardian without compensation for guardianship services. For the purposes of this subsection, the term "immediate family" is defined as a spouse, child, sibling, parent, grandparent, or grandchild. The term also includes stepparents, stepchildren, stepsiblings, and adoptive relationships."
SECTION 2.  The Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services shall appoint a subcommittee to examine the impact of the 1915(b)/(c) Medicaid waiver and other mental health system reforms on public guardianship services, including guardianship roles, responsibilities and procedures, and the effect on existing relationships between guardians and wards. The subcommittee shall report its findings and recommendations to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services on or before May 9, 2014, at which time it shall terminate.
SECTION 3.  This act is effective when it becomes law.