County Faces Mental Health Challenge

By Jennifer Latson, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

Feb. 25–A private company could take control of Thurston County’s public mental health system unless county officials find a way to compete with the private sector. The county’s plan for providing mental health services failed to meet business standards, according to a study last month, so the public mental health network that serves Thurston and Mason counties must compete for state funding along with anyone else who wants to submit a proposal, including private companies. That could reduce the quality of care people with mental illness receive, say Thurston County commissioners, who want to retain control over the publicly funded treatment system. “I think it’s pretty plausible that a private entity would make a competitive pitch to serve Thurston County’s citizens,” said Don Krupp, the county’s chief administrator. “We have to put together the best possible competitive bid that we can.” Commissioners met Wednesday with the administrator of the Thurston/Mason mental health network to hash out a strategy to compete for the funding. The best strategy, they decided, is to merge with a neighboring mental health network, such as Grays Harbor County’s, or a regional network covering Jefferson, Kitsap and Clallam counties. Legislation passed last year that requires counties to meet the new standards was meant to reduce the number of regional public mental health networks in the state, and to make them more efficient. Five networks were found to miss the mark, including Thurston County’s; nine other networks were found to comply with state standards and will keep their contracts with the state. “I want to continue in the (public mental health) business. I like the control that gives us,” Commissioner Cathy Wolfe said. “I don’t want to risk losing it.” Until April 15 Under the legislation, Thurston County has until April 15 to put together a bid to provide mental health coverage. A meeting this week was the first of several county officials will have to plan their bid. In the meantime, officials with the mental health network will lobby the Legislature for a chance to correct the document that was rejected last month, an outline of the ways the network manages finances and data, how it provides access to care and how it monitors and evaluates performance. The network scored three points below the required 70 points needed to keep the contract. It cost the network nearly $100,000 to prepare the document, with the help of a consultant. Coming up with a bid for the state funding could cost about the same, said the network’s administrator, Mark Freedman. “I think it’s unfortunate that the way this process worked, the (network) had one bite at the apple with some new requirements, and then no opportunity to correct things,” said John Masterson, chief executive officer of Behavioral Health Resources, which contracts with the county network to provide mental health services. “Now they can correct them, but they’ll be in competition with someone else.” Changes

Masterson’s nonprofit agency still plans to contract with whatever entity runs the county’s mental health network, but he thinks having private leadership will change things for the worse. “I think it’s in the best interest of the community for the current (network) to be the one going forward. We have local government saying what’s going on, which means the citizens can say what’s going on,” he said. Several amendments to last year’s legislation have been proposed during the current legislative session, but none have been approved. Freedman said he thinks the legislation values business goals over caring for the sick. If the network is run by a private company, it will mean there is “no public input for system direction, no ability to ensure that all funding is applied toward services rather than profit, no ability to ensure that local provider agencies are funded adequately,” Freedman wrote in a memo to commissioners. “This is public managed care, and the risk is it could be turned over to a private entity with no public control,” Freedman said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

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