Cuts taking toll on High Plains Mental Health in Hays
By GAYLE WEBER
Support from the state of Kansas for mental health centers likely will be decreasing due to budget cuts in social and rehabilitation services.
The state anticipates agencies such as High Plains Mental Health will be reimbursed by Medicaid for a majority of the services administered to patients, according to HPMH Executive Director Walt Hill.
But it's not that easy for High Plains. It's 20-county service area includes some of the highest numbers of uninsured individuals.
"The state's taking away money for the uninsured, and disproportionately, I think, in our 20 counties," Hill said.
Twenty-five percent or more of the populations of Cheyenne, Sheridan and Gove counties are uninsured.
The state originally granted local agencies a sum of money to make up for the additional patient load they began seeing when state hospitals closed.
High Plains received about $2.1 million in state funding each year, which supported the cost of services to 80 percent of their patients.
The agency already was cut $216,000 in state aid this fiscal year. A $160,000 payment due in December also was delayed, and an estimated $200,000 payment is expected to be suspended this month.
"If things continue in the direction they're going, we'll have about $1 million cut from these mental health reform funds, which are used to subsidize our services," Hill said.
High Plains started making cuts in December, eliminating five positions from its Ellis County offices.
"We're making the cuts we can in terms of support positions -- positions that have provided services that no one was billed for," Hill said.
If needed, High Plains could stop leasing space in the Hadley Center and consolidate all of its services to its East 29th Street location.
"There's just no other solutions that we see," Hill said.
High Plains collects from uninsured patients on a sliding scale. Hill said the agency might only charge $2 per hour for services that cost $100 or more per hour.
"We rely on county and state funds as a subsidy between the sliding rate and actual cost," Hill said.
Hill said the agency will not be asking for additional money from counties at this time, but he is making each county aware of what their mental health department is facing.
"My fear is that we're becoming, across all 105 counties, a public mental health system that parallels the public health system," Hill said.