Agenda - 02-19-2013 - 6c - Laserfiche WebLink

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Health & Human Services Legislative Goals HHS-1: Ensure adequate mental health funding. Seek legislation to ensure that state-funded mental health, developmental disability, and substance abuse services are available, accessible and affordable to all residents and that sufficient state resources fund service provision costs inclusive of sufficient crisis beds and supportive housing. While North Carolina counties largely fund social services administration and health services, the state has been traditionally responsible for mental health expenses. The state is undertaking a massive restructuring of community mental health services, converting and merging existing local management entities into managed care organizations charged with overseeing a capitated model of funding. State budget cuts and federal policy changes have reduced statewide resources to support crisis services, chronic mental health management, and state psychiatric hospital capacity. Policy changes have shifted public guardianship responsibilities from LMEs to county social services staff. The state has purchased local hospital beds set aside for the mentally ill, but additional funding is needed for increased bed capacity. Recent federal action to relocate adult care home residents suffering from mental illness to community-based housing will require increased and sustained state funding to build local supportive housing resources and wrap-around services. HHS-2: Retain county management of nonemergency Medicaid transport. Seek legislation that allows counties to retain the management and coordination of Medicaid nonemergency medical transportation services. A special provision in the 2013 State Appropriations Act directed the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to develop and issue a request for proposals to privatize the management of nonemergency medical transportation services for Medicaid recipients. A statewide transportation management brokerage firm could remove all coordination efforts currently in place to share transportation services costs amongst funding sources. North Carolina is recognized nationally for its coordinated system of community human services transit systems. Largely managed by professional transit administrators under the oversight of county management, these coordinated systems provide efficient trip scheduling and travel for an array of human services clients including veterans, elderly citizens, children in daycare, and Medicaid recipients. Shared trips to the same geographic area equate to shared costs among the clientele, with cost efficiencies evidenced by North Carolina's cost-effective per member per month (pmpm) cost of $2.45. Other states have pmpm costs averaging $6 and above. HHS-3: Preserve federal block grants and state aid to counties for county-administered programs and oppose unfunded workload mandates. Seek legislation and monitor state budget activities to ensure that federal block grant and state aid to counties funds, traditionally used to support county-administered social and health services, are not redirected to offset state administrative expenses. Support human services administrative simplification efforts and resist changes in state policies and procedures that add to county administrative costs. Counties have already experienced an annual loss of $36 million in federal welfare reform funds and looming federal deficit reduction measures are likely to compound these losses for health, social services, and mental health programs. The state has eliminated its $5.4 million annual appropriation in state aid to counties for social services, although some state aid dollars remain