CenterPoint to restore some money to behavioral-health agency [Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.]

Sept. 29--Budget cuts that an area mental-health provider began experiencing in July may be eased through the $405,324 in state funding that has been restored to CenterPoint Human Services.

CenterPoint, based in Winston-Salem, receives taxpayer and Medicaid reimbursement funding as a local management entity (LME) of behavioral-health services in Davie, Forsyth, Rockingham and Stokes counties.

The agency's board of directors voted Thursday to restore $74,504 to Triumph LLC.

It also approved keeping $160,865 in its reserves to buy additional beds at Old Vineyard Behavioral Health Services if CenterPoint needs to exceed its monthly supply of seven guaranteed beds there.

, CenterPoint's chief financial officer, said Friday that the providers were chosen for the reallocated funding because "they are the two providers from whom funds were reduced to help offset the impact of the state social services block grant reductions on intellectual/developmental disability providers."

On July 13, the state informed CenterPoint that it would receive $1.77 million less from federal social services block grants, including $966,730 less for intellectual and development disabilities and $84,057 less for mental-health services.

On Aug. 8, CenterPoint announced the lowering of the reduction for developmental-disability provider contracts to $633,474, while raising the reduction for mental-health provider contracts by an additional $333,256 for a total of $417,313.

The agency updated the funding reduction allocation Friday, saying developmental-disability services were reduced by $574,010 and mental-health services by $331,506. An additional $145,271 came from spending reserve funds.

Beauchamp said the full amount of Triumph's earlier reduction is being restored.

On Sept. 20, CenterPoint said the state was restoring $405,324 for services earmarked for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Betty Taylor, CenterPoint's chief executive, said at the time that the money being restored still would not make it possible to move money back to mental-health services because the earlier cuts had so deeply affected intellectual- and developmental-disability services.

On Thursday, the board said the $405,324 in restored state funding represented 71 percent of the cuts from developmental-disability provider contracts.

Therefore, it chose to approve restoring 71 percent of the $331,506 in funding cuts that CenterPoint shifted on Aug. 8 from developmental disabilities to mental health.

The reallocation decision is the latest funding move affecting CenterPoint this year.

CenterPoint has pursued up to $1.53 million in one-time funding from Forsyth, initially as a grant in January and then as a loan in March. It also has requested about $470,000 combined from Davie, Rockingham and Stokes.

Taylor said the loans are necessary to keep from further cutting provider funding as CenterPoint dedicates discretionary funding already supplied by the counties to its cost of becoming a managed-care organization by Jan. 1.

Such cuts have been the main worry of some local advocates and providers at a time when more people with behavioral-health issues lack insurance.

The goal of the Medicaid waiver program is combining the management of Medicaid and state funds at the community level to reduce costs and add more accountability and consistency to mental-health reform. The waiver allows LMEs to operate with fewer restrictions on how they manage providers and services they oversee.

About 71 percent of CenterPoint's MCO transition costs, or $2.64 million, are for administrative expenses, including the hiring of up to 92 full-time employees and the buying or leasing of office equipment, office space, training and vehicles.

Forsyth commissioners expressed reluctance to provide the entire loan amount, with some questioning whether CenterPoint had looked deep enough for internal cuts. CenterPoint's budget for fiscal year 2012-13 is $93.2 million.

As CenterPoint made its loan requests of the four counties, it had identified Triumph for $172,887 in cuts. That was the second-highest provider funding cut amount behind $332,868 with Daymark Recovery Services Inc.

Billy West, executive director of Daymark Recovery Services Inc., declined to comment Friday.

The commissioners did agree to provide $800,640 that would go directly to provider services. The board is awaiting an assessment of the CenterPoint loan request by the Local Government Commission before providing the money.

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