Please make sure to put "Proposed CS Child" in one email and "Proposed CS Adult" in the other. Also do not be afraid to contact the governor on this issue, these community programs are affecting the consumers in the districts that he supposedly represents. The attorneys are all over this one already and this is our chance as providers to make a difference. I will be updating this blog as our strategy is developed and encourage many to do the same, anonymously of course because we know things can get very vindictive these days. Here is what I said.
To All Concerned,
It is of grave concern how many of the potential providers (in process) like myself have invested time, finances, resources and everything else required of us in good faith, to become providers of this invaluable Community Support Service only to be abandoned by DMA in the end. Many of us have been "in process" and at the mercy of our Local Management Entity, begging and pleading for them to finish reviewing our materials for countless months on end. Our agency originally submitted it's application in March of this year and have met with delay upon delay. I find it incomprehensible to believe that our governor would allow potential providers of mental healthcare services to invest all of our hard earned savings (as many I know have done) to help the mentally disadvanted in our community through providing these services, then without warning or notice, have the rug pulled from underneath us. . We have had to secure office space, insurance, business license, paid for NCI trainings, phone lines, and numerous manuals to satisfy the LME's and you inform us that we are out of luck. I have gone to more trainings than I care to count and have grown tired of hearing how the majority must suffer for the actions of a few.
For the sake of argument I will agree that "some" agencies in the past did not provide the correct level of care as defined by the service definitions. But when you have provisional and full endorsement audits and deem those agencies fit to stay in business, why does DMA still use unfit agencies as an excuse to punish the masses when they allow these agencies to operate? Also, the Community Support service is going on it's second anniversary and is being held to a standard that the state did not hold itself too (while being compensated almost twice as much) after decades of providing services through state run facilities. Sticking needles in consumers arms and shoving pills down their throats are not always the answer. Has DMA gotten to the point where they are so enlightened that they know what the consumers need more than the consumers themselves. What happened to Person Centered Thinking?
On the ground level it has turned into an us (providers) against them (LME's and DMA) type of fiasco. The agencies are pointing fingers at one another while DMA blames us for the problem, but ultimately it is the consumer that loses. It has become clearly obvious that this is a political issue and is now about the bottom line. Do we reduce rates for the entire health care system in North Carolina because a handful of Physicians committ Medicaid fraud? No you deal with them on a case by case basis. When hospitals are caught giving lower quality of care to Medicaid recipients are all of the hospitals punished as a result, including the ones who are in compliance? Has any other health care industry servicing Medicaid ever (in the entire history of DMA) ever had the entire industry's rates slashed by a third without warning, provocation, or justification? In my conclusion I would like to say that I hear the powers that be claiming this is all for the good of the consumer but We are out here dealing with the "consumers" everyday. Contrary to popular belief, we are making a difference, but so many agencies are afraid to stand up and defend themselves because such a hostile climate has been created by all of the uncertainty coming down the pipeline. I am one of the biggest advocates for the consumer, I have lived this on both sides of the spectrum for many years. I would like DMA to know that if it means the state can provide the level of care they think we are incapable of providing then by all means please do. But if you are telling us that it is too expensive and your system was flawed and this is a better way...Then please un-handcuff us and allow us to do what we are good at doing.
If any other applicants in similar situations would like to discuss some solutions to this issue with a forum of applicants please call and leave a message, many people were affected by this decision. (336)793-5582
