by Dave Ranney, KHI News Service
The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services has invited behavioral health programs throughout the state to apply for no-interest loans designed to reduce admissions to the state’s mental health hospitals in Larned and Osawatomie.
“This program is being launched to help Kansas communities build up the infrastructure to support adults with behavioral health needs and create more alternatives to institutionalization,” KDADS Secretary Kari Bruffett said in a prepared statement earlier this week. “The right support is critical to being able to maintain people in their communities in the least restrictive setting possible.”
In recent years, federal officials have cited the Larned and Osawatomie hospitals for having too many patients.
Applications for the $2.5 million loan program are due May 29.
Prospective applicants include public and private community-based mental health programs, substance abuse programs, community developmental disability organizations, hospitals, nursing facilities and faith-based groups.
The loans will allow recipients to replicate the crisis-intervention program now being provided by Rainbow Services Inc. (RSI) in Kansas City, Kan. KDADS officials last month said RSI facilitated a 12 percent reduction in “bed days” at Osawatomie State Hospital between April 2014 and March 2015.
Wyandot Center, Johnson County Mental Health Center, and Heartland Regional Alcohol and Drug Assessment Center collaborate to provide services at RSI.
RSI is housed in the former Rainbow Mental Health Facility building near the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan. KDADS converted the inpatient psychiatric facility to a short-term crisis intervention unit in April 2014.
KDADS officials have long expressed interest in making similar services available in other parts of the state.
The loan program is being underwritten with proceeds from the sale of the Rainbow Mental Health Facility building last year and by additional funding proposed by Gov. Sam Brownback.
The loans are meant to help local programs buy equipment, vehicles or buildings. They may not be used to pay for administrative or direct-care services.
As the loans are paid back, KDADS will use the funds to support other crisis-intervention initiatives.
“The purpose of the revolving fund approach is to encourage innovation that is sustainable in community-based settings,” said Angela de Rocha, a KDADS spokesperson. “KDADS is optimistic about the potential of the program.”
It’s not yet known how many programs plan to apply for loans.
At least seven of the state’s 26 community mental health centers are not allowed to borrow money because they are county-administered or are considered quasi-governmental.
“We have interlocal agreements with our 20 counties, so we’re ‘government,’” said Walt Hill, executive director at High Plains Mental Health Center in Hays. “We’re not allowed to borrow money.”
Most center directors, Hill said, will be slow to apply.
“With reimbursement rates being as low as they are, it’s not clear how you’d be able to repay the loans,” he said. “And now that we’re hearing how the KanCare managed care companies continue to lose ground, you have to wonder how much longer it’ll be before they’ll start squeezing payments down even further.”
KanCare refers to the state’s Medicaid program, which has been administered by three for-profit managed care companies since 2013.
Bill Persinger is executive director with the Mental Health Center of East Central Kansas in Emporia.
“We’re a nonprofit, but we don’t have any immediate plans to apply,” he said. “We may in the future, but we’re at a point now where we’re focused more on trying to intensify the services we already have in place.”
Persinger said he shared Hill’s concerns.
“The question, these days, is sustainability,” he said. “I mean, it’s great that there’s a pot of interest-free money that you can go after — especially if you’re needing to build a building. But how are you going to fund those operations going forward? That’s the question.”
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