Mental health contract OK’d
Spokane County commissioners voted Tuesday to end a long-standing partnership with United Behavioral Health, a California managed-care firm hired to look after the finances of the public mental health system.
The decision ends an often prickly relationship between the county, the managed-care company and mental health providers in Spokane.
“We felt, and the provider community felt, that it was time to make a change,” said Christine Barada, the county’s director of community services.
The county commissioners approved a $650,000 annual contract with a subsidiary of Sierra Health Services Inc. that will cut administrative expenses in half. County staff will gradually resume some of the management tasks, Barada said.
County mental health services will not be interrupted, and the two managed care companies are working to transfer duties by July 1, Barada said.
Sierra Health, based in Las Vegas, operates Behavioral Healthcare Options, which already holds contracts with seven public health networks in Washington.
Spokane’s mental health system, which serves 10,000 patients a year, has struggled to right its finances after significant changes in federal funding.
This year, Spokane’s network failed a review of its programs – an application that United Behavioral Health and the county had spent months preparing.
On Tuesday, the county submitted a 1,200-page report – this time compiled with the help of Behavioral Healthcare – to the state’s Mental Health Division. The county submitted the only application to oversee the system but still must receive state approval.
Barada said the failure of the initial application did not lead to the end of services with United Behavioral Health.
In 1999, in a dramatic shift toward managed health care, the county opted to hire the San Francisco company. Mental health workers frequently criticized the company, arguing that it saved money at the expense of patients and failed to communicate with providers.
“We tried to be responsive to their requests for information,” said David Panken, executive director of Spokane Mental Health, the county’s largest provider. “But there were times when they spent a tremendous amount of time auditing and reviewing (data) for which we received very little feedback.”
Behavioral Healthcare will be responsible for determining whether individuals qualify for public health care and which services can be financed. The bulk of the county patients are enrolled in Medicaid, the federal program for low-income Americans.
County Commissioner Mark Richard said he expects Behavioral Healthcare to be better than United Behavioral Health at determining when a patient needs to be treated at Eastern State Hospital.
State officials have accused the county of hospitalizing too many patients who could be better served with outpatient care.
Because of state guidelines, the county limited its contract with Behavioral Healthcare to one year.
“We have every intention to continue working with the (county),” said Wayne Neff, the company’s director of business development.