Fwd: Additional information on DHHS actions in Lakeshore Region
Tom Bird
From: <r
Date: Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 3:41 AM
Subject: Additional information on DHHS actions in Lakeshore Region
To: <tbird...@gmail.com>
Tom, you my have already received this information but thought I would send along anyway. The response below and attachment was sent by Sarah Esty at MDHHS to The Arc Michigan in response to their request for clarification to recent actions taken by MDHHS to cancel their contract with the LRE.
Satah Esty Wrote:
We know there have been many questions about our actions to cancel the PIHP contract with Lakeshore Regional Entity and what will come next in the region, so we’ve prepared the attached document with some more information. As noted in the FAQs, we will be putting out more information about the board at the end of the month, and will make sure that we share that with you at that time. Feel free to share this information with any of your members if helpful, and please do let us know if you’ve got further questions or have concerns - we want to make sure things go smoothly for everyone during this transition.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Esty
Senior Deputy Director, Policy and Planning
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Tom Bird
From: Bob B
Date: Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 11:19 AM
Subject: RE: Additional information on DHHS actions in Lakeshore Region
To: ddadvocates-of-w...@googlegroups.com <ddadvocates-of-w...@googlegroups.com>, ddadvocates googlegroup <ddadvocates-...@googlegroups.com>
Presently, 9 of the 10 P.I.H.P.’s in the State are projecting deficits for 2019 and 4 have no reserves. The problem, from the beginning, has been flawed actuaries leading the underfunding, and significant underfunding where LRE is concerned.
How the State thinks a private, for profit, entity will resolve this issue without increased resources only demonstrates the profound incompetence of this department. On the other hand if this has been the State’s plan all along the proof of that theory will be demonstrated if there is a sudden increase in funding to the private entity, now the PIHP, in order to insure stability and profitability.
________________________________________
From: ddadvocates-...@googlegroups.com [ddadvocates-...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Tom Bird [tbird...@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, July 15, 2019 7:03 AM
To: ddadvocates googlegroup
Subject: Fwd: Additional information on DHHS actions in Lakeshore Region
-READ THE ATTACHMENT. THIS IS THE MDHHS GAMEPLAN FOR OUR REGION. IF YOU QUESTION ANY OF THE PROPOSED POLICY, CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS TO REGISTER YOUR COMMENTS. Nowhere in this statement is there an admission that the state department bears any responsibility for a poorly conceived regionalization plan. There is a brief mention of the need to address "actuary" data, which refers to the problem of chronic underfunding of some local CMH's based upon flawed formulas for distributing the federal Medicaid Dollars. Nowhere is the underlying problem of covering the costs of expanded Medicaid services addressed. The promised "cost savings" by which this plan was originally sold to the Legislature have not occurred, as many predicted. Now the solution, we are told, is to "privatize" the oversight and management of the public mental health system at an undefined expense. That worked well for the prison system, didn't it? One would surely hope the same problems and outcomes are avoided in this debacle.