Fw: ACTION ALERT: "Groundhog Day" in Lansing or How to resurrect an idea over and over until you get what you want--Section 298 is alive and well

[Tom Bird]

I'm not sure of the status of this iniative in the legislature. Has it been voted on in the joint committee, and will it be in the final proposed budget to be sent to the Governor shortly?

You might also try to contact your legislators to inquire about their support for this concept when it has been strenuously objected to before.

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Marianne Huff <\>

To: Marianne Huff <>

Sent: Monday, September 23, 2019, 12:33:19 PM EDT

Subject: ACTION ALERT: "Groundhog Day" in Lansing or How to resurrect an idea over and over until you get what you want--Section 298 is alive and well

ACTION ALERT  "Groundhog Day" in Lansing or How to resurrect an idea over and over until you get what you want--Section 298 is alive and well

“Groundhog Day—6.0 OR How to resurrect an idea over and over until you get what you want”

It seems that “Groundhog Day” is alive and well in Lansing.  Although the efforts to remove the control of Medicaid from the community mental health system over the past three years have been largely defeated by the advocacy groups, families, consumers and others who support the public mental health system, we are seeing a repeat of efforts that were made in 2016, 2017 and 2018 to privatize a mental health system that has been publicly funded since its inception in the late 1960’s.

 

In the 1993 film, “Groundhog Day”, Bill Murray plays a cynical, arrogant and mean-spirited weatherman, Phil Connors, who is sent to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities with Punxsutawney Phil, the resident groundhog whose task is to predict the arrival of Spring.  Phil the weatherman experiences the same day over and over again until the time loop is broken, and, along the way,  learns some important lessons about life and love.  A time loop, by definition, is a plot device in which periods of time are repeated and re-experienced by the characters, and there is often some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition.

 

SOUND-BITE VERSION--Courtesy of the Mental Health Association in Michigan

The House-Senate Conference Committee budget for MDHHS in FY-20 expands the infamous Section 298 concept, so that CMHSPs can be shut out of the picture in the three pilot programs (which keep getting delayed) that would give almost all Medicaid specialty behavioral health appropriations to private (often for-profit) Medicaid Health Plans (MHPs).

Governor Whitmer will have only till the end of the month to determine what she may veto in FY-20 state department budgets. It is imperative that you contact her office ASAP and ask for a veto of section 298 or, alternatively, a veto of subsections (1)(a), (1)(b), and (2).

Here is what we (MHAM) have said to the Governor’s office on these subsections:

(1)(a): This would allow MHPs to use entities other than CMHSPs to provide behavioral health services. In our opinion, this conflicts with existing state law.

 

(1)(b): MHPs may retain all functions related to their accreditation. The Senate has tried this before, and MDHHS has said this is unnecessary and can't/shouldn't be included. One of the byproducts of this language is helping to freeze CMHSPs out.

 

(2): This calls for measurement results 20 months before the pilots would be completed. And the list of measures offered is totally redundant – exactly the same as what's already in subsection (5).

You can reach Governor Gretchen Whitmer in these ways:

Contact Governor Gretchen Whitmer:
Mail:
Governor Gretchen Whitmer
P.O. Box 30013
Lansing, Michigan 48909

Phone:
517-373-3400
517-335-7858 (Constituent Services)

https://somgovweb.state.mi.us/GovRelations/ShareOpinion.aspx

LONGER VERSION:  

Section 298 has become the state of Michigan’s version of “Groundhog Day” and it appears that certain members of the Michigan legislature are stuck 

in a time loop as efforts to privatize the public mental health system in Michigan repeat--again.  Without repeating what has become "War and Peace"

(Governor Snyder unveiled a desire to privatize the public mental health system in February of 2016 when there was language inserted into the budget

that would have transferred Medicaid dollars that have been “set aside” for the community mental health system to the Medicaid Health Plans), know

that new language has been created with regard to Section 298 in the House-Senate Conference Committee budget for the Michigan Department of

Health and Human Services in Fiscal Year 2020 that expands the current 298 concept so that the Community Mental Health Services Providers

(CMHSPs) can be shut out of the picture in the three pilot programs (that were finally adopted in 2017 but which keep getting delayed) that would give

the Medicaid Health Plans who are in the three (3) pilot regions appropriations to contract with a non-community mental health services provider for

services in the pilot regions.   The goals for privatization have not been fully described for those who "matter" and there is a lot of questions about 

whether or not the Medicaid Health Plans can "do it better". 

As of this writing, the best that anyone can do if they are a stakeholder—and stakeholders are those who will either suffer or benefit from the final design of the “system”—is to ask a lot of questions about “why” and “how” the movement toward privatization will be beneficial.  At this point, there have been few answers to critical questions and lacking a cogent response, it is difficult to formulate an intelligent response.   The best advice that can be given to consumers, families, friends of consumers, loved ones and others is to learn as much as possible about privatization and what has happened in other states.  But more important, it is critical that you ask the right questions. And right questions include acquiring some understanding about “how” things will be better if the Medicaid Health Plans are in charge of the dollars.  

Given the way that this is progressing through the legislature, a phone call or an email to Governor Whitmer's office may be your only opportunity to "LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!"

 

Stay tuned.  

Marianne Huff

Marianne Huff, CEO/Founder

Person-Centered Advocacy Services, LLC

Person-Centered Counseling Services, LLC

Business phone:  616-848-7630

Cell phone:  269-355-3554

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 "For we know that all things work together for good for those who love God,  who are called according to His purpose."  Romans 8:28

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