News Photo by Kayla Wikaryasz On Thursday, the NeMCMHA board and leadership team met to provide updates on various orders of business.

ALPENA — Nena Sork, Northeast Michigan Community Mental Health Authority executive director, told the board that NeMCMHA is prepared to file an injunction to stop a bid-out process transition initiated by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS).

Sork told the board that MDHHS is transitioning to a bidding system for the state’s Pre-Paid Inpatient Health Plan (PIHP), through Request for Proposals (RFPs). Sork explained that Michigan is broken up into 10 PIHP regions, which are contracted through the state to receive compensation for providing behavioral, psychiatric, and therapeutic services.

NeMCMHA is currently one of those 10 PIHPs in the state, and MDHHS plans to not allow current PIHPs to bid on future services.

“They wrote language that said, “If you’re a regional entity, you can’t bid on this bid-out for services,” Sork said. “So, it prohibited the PIHPs, which would wipe out the CMHs.”

Sork said that the state will likely “carve out” funding for hospitalization, evaluation, and crises.

“And that would be it … and then contract out everything else,” Sork said.

For context, Sork told the board that MDHHS has tried to do something similar through legislature two other times in 2016 and 2022. She said that both times there was “overwhelming opposition to it.”

According to Sork, she told the board that this bid-out transition is a way for the state to privatize the mental health care system.

“They’re doing the same thing now, only they’re doing it through administrative maneuvers and legislation,” Sork said.

This transition is concerning for Sork and NeMCMHA because they are upheld by law to provide certain services that aren’t being addressed in the MDHHS PIHPs restructuring. She said they are concerned that MDHHS will make “minor changes” that will open up the door for further privatization.

Sork explained that NeMCMHA is one of the few CMHs in the state that provide mental health care services directly, as other CMHs usually contract out to community partners. Because Northeastern Michigan is a rural region, NeMCMHA cannot find community partners that are able, or have the bandwidth, to provide those services.

For example, Sork explained that NeMCMHA has limited “immunity” from being sued for malpractice as long as they provide services that follow proper procedures and policy. This allows them to tackle more challenging mental health and behavioral cases that other providers may not take on due to the fear of being sued.

Thus, the scope of work of the NeMCMHA is beyond what other CMHs in the state provide. MDHHS’ transition to a bid-out system would reduce the access to mental health care in the region.

“What I’m telling the community is there’s nobody that can step in and handle this,” Sork said. “In the private sector, they’re not going to take any of our seriously and persistently mentally ill people and take care of them.”

Sork said that NeMCMHA will be using money they received from the state for high performance within the CMH system for an injunction to stop the RFPs. She said that this money will not come from Medicaid dollars.

IN OTHER BUSINESS:

— Rebekah Duhaime, NeMCMHA executive assistant, asked the board to review revisions to the strategic plan. One revision Duhaime asked the board to review was an added goal to establish focus groups to learn what issues are important to staff and to strategize ways to maintain a sustainable work life balance.

— Sork shared surveys and statements with the board of patients who were successful in recovery programs at NeMCMHA. She thanked the board for “holding us to excellence.”

— Board member Kara Bauer LeMonds, Alpena County, commended NeMCMHA on the services they provide to the community, that includes one of her own family members.

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.