TRAVERSE CITY \u2014 The state has abandoned plans to potentially privatize Michigan\u2019s mental health system, a possibility that drew mixed reactions from patients and Northern Michigan officials.<\/p>\n
Some experts say they were concerned the proposal would cause providers to focus more on profitability \u2014 and some mental health patients say they\u2019re willing to entertain the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally think we don\u2019t need to throw out the system,\u201d said Brian Babbit, CEO of North Country Community Mental Health. \u201cI think there\u2019s room for improvement in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
The management of Michigan\u2019s behavioral health system costs close to 5 billion dollars every year. That\u2019s about 15 percent of MDHHS\u2019s entire budget.<\/p>\n
Kate Dahlstrom, president of Grand Traverse\u2019s National Alliance on Mental Illness, says that the drop in available inpatient beds has made it more difficult to receive care.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the \u201860s, we had almost 22,000 in Michigan, and now the state finances, almost 700 \u2014 that is, that\u2019s basically malpractice, in my mind,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re relying on general hospitals to have psychiatric units\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the department says in a statement that MDHHS rescinded the plan to re-evaluate their approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichigan\u2019s behavioral health delivery framework has remained largely unchanged since the late 1990s, despite significant changes in health care delivery, financing, integration expectations and federal oversight,\u201d she said. \u201cThis requires the department to assess whether the current structure is positioned to meet today\u2019s demands and future needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
MDHHS is continuing to look forward \u2014 but Northern Michigan providers say they\u2019re not convinced the state has a strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been no indication that I\u2019m aware of what the department\u2019s plans are,\u201d Babbit said. \u201cBut I do think that those would be coming forward\u201d<\/p>\n
Mental health advocates argue that Michigan\u2019s state-contracted system has generally run more efficiently than private facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the administrative cost of the public system is considerably less than what you typically see in the managed care arena,\u201d Babbit said. \u201cSo it would have taken a fair amount of money right off the top that would no longer be available for services.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposal also raised concerns that private operators could become more focused on profit.<\/p>\n
But Norma Eby, a former patient of Traverse City State Hospital, says she supports more public involvement in mental healthcare.<\/p>\n
Eby was institutionalized from 1972 to 73 in the children\u2019s and adult wings. She associates a drop in state hospital access with an increase in untreated mental illness.<\/p>\n
\u201cI basically am an advocate for starting new state hospitals,\u201d she said. \u201cI was disappointed to see that the decision by the state to withdraw their proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TRAVERSE CITY \u2014 The state has abandoned plans to potentially privatize Michigan\u2019s mental health system, a possibility that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260,63921],"class_list":{"0":"post-449512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-social-content"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}