SUPERVISORS DELAY CARE MERGER; FEDERAL HEALTH LICENSE TROUBLE COULD MEAN LOSS OF $15 MILLION.Byline: David Greenberg The creator of this article, or someone who has substantially contributed to it, may have a conflict of interest regarding its subject matter. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Daily News Staff Writer Facing the loss of as much as $15 million in Medicare and Medicaid Medicare and Medicaid U.S. government programs in effect since 1966. Medicare covers most people 65 or older and those with long-term disabilities. Part A, a hospital insurance plan, also pays for home health visits and hospice care. payments annually from an illegal shift of mental health services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract , the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday delayed approval of the county Human Services Agency. The board will vote on the restructuring plan Oct. 13 after Supervisor Susan Lacey - the architect of the merger - and other county officials meet with federal health officials to determine how the mental health services can be legally transferred from Ventura County Medical Center Ventura County Medical Center is a hospital in the city of Ventura, California, USA. It is a 208 bed acute care hospital. The county also operates a 49 bed campus in Santa Paula. to the human services umbrella. ``We're not looking to stop (the merger),'' said Supervisor Judy Mikels. ``Nobody's changing the decision of the board.'' Supervisors on April 7 approved merging the Behavioral Health Behavioral health was first used in the 1980's to name the combination of the fields mental health and substance abuse. As an example, an organization serving both mental health and substance abuse clients might refer to its practice as behavioral health or Department with the human services offices, forming a $171 million-a-year conglomerate. The merger was opposed by Mikels and Supervisor Frank Schillo - who recently said that he was concerned that a transfer of the behavioral health federal license from the hospital to his board would force supervisors to micromanage micromanage Administration A popular term for excess oversight of lower management by upper management the department. ``Federal certification is the one that counts,'' Schillo said. ``That's the one where if you conform to Verb 1. conform to - satisfy a condition or restriction; "Does this paper meet the requirements for the degree?" fit, meet coordinate - be co-ordinated; "These activities coordinate well" it, then you're able to get reimbursed for money that is spent for Medical and Medicaid. We're not certified under the way we're operating now. So we're in danger of losing the funds that we have spent since April.'' Medicare provides health services for seniors, while Medicaid serves the mentally ill, homeless, welfare recipients, abused children and others. It would be illegal to transfer a mental health services license from the hospital to supervisors, wrote Stan Marcisz, regional director of the federal Health Care Financing Administration Health Care Financing Administration, n.pr department in the U.S. agency of Health and Human Services responsible for the oversight of the Medicaid and Medicare benefit programs, including guidelines, payment, and coverage policies. , in a Sept. 14 letter to David Henninger, a Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. consultant working on the merger. ``We do not accept the premise that the Board of Supervisors or the Oversight Committee is the immediate governing body of the hospital,'' Marcisz wrote. ``The board is too distant from the hospital organizationally. The Oversight Committee more resembles a mediation or arbitration committee with limited delegated responsibility. As a result, all mental health services would not be allowed to be billed as hospital services.'' Lacey said her strategy is to simply ask what it will take to make the merger legal in the eyes of federal health officials. ``I'm going to investigate what the next step is,'' she said. The merger was designed to enhance services - drug and alcohol counseling, senior and adult programs, child welfare, veterans aid, food stamps - by placing them under the umbrella of the Human Services Agency. But opponents of the merger fear the new system will lower the quality of services to mentally ill patients because of a lack of input from doctors working under social service workers. Dick Clemence, a criminal justice consultant who lobbied against the merger, applauded the supervisors for their decision to delay their vote and called for stopping the merger altogether. ``This was a giant step to save the taxpayers a lot of money,'' he said. ``The merger can only result in frustration, anger, hatred and lawsuits.'' |
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