An effort led by Genesee County Mental Health Director Ellery Reaves to create a first-of-a-kind a nonprofit mental health care coalition among five counties has hit a bureaucratic roadblock.
It's caused a six-month delay in the project though Reaves believes it will soon be resolved, he told members of the Human Services Committee at a meeting Monday.
"The hang-up is really a bizarre thing," Reaves said. "New York State, in its wisdom, in order to draw the maximum amount of dollars for this project, passed it through a managed care company. Well, they passed it through a managed care company as a premium. If it’s an insurance company, you have to pay out premiums based on services. It can’t be paid as a project."
And this, Reaves said, is a project.
If the federal government were later to question reimbursements, the question is: Who will pay back the federal government if required?
At first, there was an effort to make the counties responsible for any such return of funds.
"Our attorney basically said, 'That’s not going to happen,'" Reaves said. "'Once we’ve received the money in good faith for the project and we’ve met our deliverables, you’re not getting anything because we’ve met our deliverables.'"
Reaves said in a sense the project is in a state of limbo. There are still operational tasks to be completed to get the new company up and running.
None of this, he says, has affected patient care.
"We think the state is going to agree with the managed care companies and indemnify them from any future potential loss, so we hope it’s going to resolve itself soon," Reaves said.
Previously: County Mental Health Services planning to enter coalition with five other counties to form new nonprofit
