# Mental and Physical Health Care Comorbidities Act of 2025

This bill creates a five-year test program to help hospitals treat patients who have both mental health and physical health problems at the same time. The program runs from October 2025 through September 2030 and focuses on specific types of hospitals serving low-income and vulnerable communities.

The bill recognizes that many people struggle with serious mental illness alongside chronic physical conditions like diabetes, heart disease, or chronic pain. These patients often bounce between different doctors and specialists who don't communicate with each other, leading to worse health outcomes and higher costs. The program gives selected hospitals money to try new approaches that treat the whole person—both their mental and physical health—rather than treating these conditions separately. Hospitals can use the funding to hire care coordinators, integrate mental health services into regular doctor visits, improve their electronic health records so all providers can see the full picture, and address social factors like food insecurity or housing instability that make health problems worse.

The program targets three types of hospitals: rural hospitals serving poor communities, large teaching hospitals with strong mental health programs, and urban safety-net hospitals that already serve uninsured and low-income patients. These hospitals will work with community organizations, nonprofits, and local government agencies to reach people who are uninsured, on Medicaid, or low-income Medicare beneficiaries. The government will pay participating hospitals to implement these innovations and will require them to share what they learn with other hospitals across the country through a "learning collaborative."

By the end of the program, the government will report to Congress on whether these new approaches actually improved patient health, reduced emergency room visits and hospital admissions, lowered costs, and helped reduce disparities in care for minority populations. The goal is to figure out whether these integrated treatment models work well enough to become standard practice across the healthcare system.

Mental and Physical Health Care Comorbidities Act of 2025

Boyle, Brendan F.

Mental and Physical Health Care Comorbidities Act of 2025This bill establishes a demonstration program to test hospital innovations that support low-income or uninsured individuals with serious mental and physical health comorbidities and to identify appropriate payment reforms under Medicare and Medicaid.Participating hospitals must (1) have a proportionally high number of Medicare or Medicaid patients, and (2) develop a plan and related quality metrics for innovations to provide coordinated care and address social determinants of health for individuals with serious mental illness or emotional disturbance and physical comorbidities (e.g., chronic conditions).