• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Plan to Privatize State's Mental Hospitals Under Fire

Posted on: Friday, 12 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

The state's plan to privatize three mental hospitals drew sharp criticism Tuesday from advocates and legislators, who said the Daniels administration needs to provide more details and called for more scrutiny of the plan.

Critics said the Family and Social Services Administration should not privatize the state hospitals in Evansville, Madison and Richmond without guaranteeing the state will retain enough long- term care beds to treat those hobbled by mental illness. They also sought assurances that the new hospital operators would remain accountable to the state for their performance.

"It seems like we're rushing to the cliff here," an exasperated state Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington, said during the first meeting of the Legislature's 15-member Commission on Mental Health. "We're gambling with people's lives."

Joe Vanable of West Lafayette, president of the Indiana chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, said advocates and others need more details about the plan to turn over the hospitals to local nonprofits before they can determine whether it helps or hurts patients.

"Without being able to evaluate these details, it will not be possible for us or anyone to say whether it will be good or bad," Vanable told the commission.

The concerns, which also were voiced by Republican lawmakers on the commission, raised questions over whether FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob Jr. will be able to achieve his goal of privatizing at least one of the three hospitals by next June 30.

The three psychiatric hospitals serve particular regions of Indiana and admit mostly low-income residents with little or no health insurance upon referral from community mental health centers within their regions. Richmond has 283 patients; Evansville, 166; and Madison, 139, FSSA spokesman Brian Carnes said.

Roob's timeline calls for FSSA to turn over operations of at least one of the hospitals before the start of the next fiscal year on July 1.

"We're not going to rush it," said Roob, who announced the privatization plan last month.

The state's psychiatric hospitals, which also include a children's hospital in Evansville and the Larue D. Carter Memorial Hospital in Indianapolis, treated about 2,000 patients combined last year, compared with more than 100,000 people who received care as outpatients through community mental health centers.

Source: Evansville Courier & Press

More News in this Category