Services provided to thousands of Michigan residents with
mental illness and other disabilities are in danger of being lost because of
budget errors made by Gov. Rick Snyder, the association that represents
Community Mental Health Boards says.
“Unfortunately, the promise to do ‘no harm’ has been
broken,” said Michael Vizena, executive director of the Michigan Association of
Community Mental Health Boards. “Errors were made, and savings were withdrawn
before sufficient ‘Healthy Michigan’ revenue was available to replace the lost
revenue,” he said.
Healthy Michigan is a public health insurance plan for the
46 Community Mental Health Boards across the state. It is an expansion of
Medicaid to provide physical and behavioral health care insurance coverage to
nearly 500,000 Michigan citizens.
Unfortunately, more than $100 million of statewide CMH
general fund support was reduced and placed into state savings as a result of
the Healthy Michigan Plan being implemented April 1, the board said. This
occurred before sufficient replacement funds were available from Healthy
Michigan, causing projected shortfalls for 2014-2015.
OCCMHA anticipates that its
expenditures for fiscal year 2014 will exceed funding provided by state and
federal government by $22 million, a spokeswoman said Friday. The Authority
passes on funding from state and federal core service providers.
These include Macomb-Oakland Regional Center, which provides
services for more than 5,000 people with disabilities from its offices in
Clinton Township and Auburn Hills; Community Network Services of Farmington
Hills and Waterford; Training & Treatment Innovations of Oxford, Troy and
Sterling Heights; Easter Seals Michigan which has offices in Auburn Hills and
Community Living Services-Oakland of Ferndale.
Errors were made in the calculation of anticipated total
savings as a result of increased Medicaid funds flowing into the state for
Healthy Michigan, the board said.
“As a result, thousands of people across the state are
receiving notices from their local Community Mental Health center that funding
is no longer available to continue,” the Board added in a press release.
In addition, some mental health executives say many
individuals served by the CMH system will not qualify for the Healthy Michigan
plan.
The CMH board is projecting a full-year General Fund gap of
$60 million based on full enrollment for the Healthy Michigan plan. The state
recently added $25 million for Fiscal Year 2014 but the general fund gap still
exists during the 12 to 18 month ramp-up period which ends in September 2015.
“The governor and the Legislature must restore the full year
of the necessary general fund support for FY15 so that further and permanent
reductions are not necessary,” Vizena said. “These funds must be restored as
part of the FY15 budget process that will occur over the next six weeks.
Community Mental Health centers and the individuals they serve need to know
that resources will be there, in order to prevent a further erosion of
services.”
Jerry Wolffe is the
writer-in-resident and advocate-at-large at the Macomb-Oakland Regional Center.
He can be reached at 586 263-8950.
