County, state agree on transfer of mental health crisis services

Thursday Aug 20 2009 5:37 PM

Some mental health services handled by Pierce County will soon be delivered through a private provider under a new system being set up by the state.

Officials with Pierce County, the state Department of Social and Health Services and OptumHealth pledged to work together on a smooth transition for the 15,000 low-income residents who rely on the state-funded assistance.

The shift is accompanied by severe budget cuts DSHS must make due to declining revenues. DSHS said the new system will be supported by additional federal Medical funds by switching from the county's 48-bed program in one location to a privately-run group of 16-bed facilities.

As a result of the shift to the privately-operated program, Pierce County will close its crisis and evaluation and treatment units at the end of September, resulting in the loss of about 130 county jobs. However, the state said OptumHealth, the contractor it hired to be the county's Regional Support Network (RSN), agreed that its subcontractors would look to those employees first as it staffs an interim crisis center at Western State Hospital. OptumHealth said the interim system will total 45 beds.

Ultimately, the Western State Hospital center will be phased out as OptumHealth opens other sites in the county.

"We have been in talks with the state and its private partner for six months about the future of state-funded mental health crisis services here," said Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy. "I had three goals for those talks: protect the vulnerable residents who need these services; support the hospitals, law enforcement agencies and other community interests with a stake in the system; and support the county's dedicated mental health staff."

"It is important to reassure the residents of Pierce County that these vital services and the other mental health care provided by the RSN will continue to be available to residents as before," said DSHS Secretary Susan Dreyfus after meeting with Executive McCarthy this week.

Dreyfus said she also wanted to reassure Pierce County law enforcement officers and local hospitals that the procedures involved in obtaining crisis services would remain in place.

"We are absolutely not interested in disrupting a system that works," she said.

Until 2007, the state paid Pierce County to administer mental health services in the county, using state and federal funds. The county terminated its Regional Support Network contract two years ago because the state was unable to fully fund mental health services. In January, the state selected Minnesota-based OptumHealth among four bidders to operate the Pierce County system.

During the talks over the past six months, OptumHealth determined that it needed to decentralize the system and create the 16-bed units that would qualify for federal Medicaid funding. The company asked the county to operate one of those facilities, but the county had to decline because its daily bed rate is based on economies of scale achieved by operating the comprehensive system. Operating just one 16-bed facility would increase the county's per-bed cost by $2.6 million over a year.

During the talks, the county was represented by Lyle Quasim, who was chief of staff to former Executive John Ladenburg and also served as DSHS secretary from 1995-2000; David Stewart, director of the county's Human Services Department; and David Dula, the county's mental health program manager. In recent weeks, high-level meetings involved Executive McCarthy, DSHS Secretary Dreyfus, OptumHealth Pierce director Cheri Dolezal, Gov. Chris Gregoire and the governor's chief of staff, Cindy Zehnder.

More information about Pierce County's current program is available online.

Here are contacts for more information:

Pierce County: David Stewart, Pierce County Human Services, 253-798-6119; or Hunter George, Communications Director, 253-798-6606

DSHS: Jim Stevenson, Communications, Health and Recovery Services Administration, DSHS, 360-725-1915

OptumHealth: Jaclyn Anderson, The Fearey Group, 206-343-1543; or Brad Lotterman, Communications, OptumHealth, 714-445-0453

Find more Pierce County news at www.piercecountywa.org or follow us at twitter.com/pierceco.