ACTION ALERT: Contact Your Legislators in Opposition to DHHS Proposed Lakeshore PIHP Termination
The state (MDHHS) once again proposed a plan to (1) terminate the PIHP contract that it holds with the LRE as of 9/30/2019, (2) replace the publicly appointed and locally accountable board with an advisory board appointed by the state, and (3) directly manage the LRE’s functions with the help of Beacon Health Options during FY2020 while it seeks a new RFP for a new PIHP for FY2021. The state’s public press release can be found at https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/0,5885,7-339-73970_71692_71696-500837–,00.html. The state indicates that its objectives are (1) greater involvement by the state in the management of the Medicaid benefit in the LRE region, (2) changing the makeup of the LRE Board of Directors, and (3) re-examining the role of LRE staff in their partnership with Beacon for the management of Medicaid behavioral healthcare benefit.
The MDHHS proposal will create a lot of unnecessary chaos and conflict and eliminates local public governance of the public behavioral health system – one of the foundations of Michigan’s nationally recognized behavioral health system for the past 50 years – and replaces it with a state-appointed advisory group. We have proposed a smarter way to achieve the aims of MDHHS that avoids the chaos of the MDHHS-proposed plan, retains local management, and maintains the momentum that the partnership between Lakeshore, the CMHs in the Lakeshore region, and Beacon.
REQUEST FOR URGENT ACTION: We are asking that everyone contact the Governor and if you live in West Michigan contact your Senate & House member(s) expressing your concerns with this proposed direction of eliminating the public governance and oversight of the Lakeshore area. Timing is critical – we believe it is important for the Governor and those key legislators hear from us – we believe with enough pressure they could change their decision. Please make contact today.