Alliance Behavioral Healthcare appeals to Commissioners to seek end to state funding cuts

March 08--DURHAM -- Cynthia Binanay, vice chair of Alliance Behavioral Healthcare, sees the benefits of local management entities-managed care organizations. (LME/MCO).

Binanay has a relative who was diagnosed with with schizoaffective disorder but aged out from parental insurance.

"He for sure would either be on the street or institutionalized, but is someone who is now gainfully employed, married and a parent," Binanay told County Commissioners Monday night. "And that is not an opportunity for folks who don't have a way to access the system and to get the care that they desperately need."

The LME/MCO system coordinates services for clients, she said.

It's one of the reasons why Alliance Behavioral Healthcare is asking Durham County Commissioners to consider a resolution requesting no more state funding cuts to its organization.

Alliance Behavioral Healthcare is a local management care organization in Durham, Wake, Johnston and Cumberland counties and provides services to more than 71,000 individuals who battle substance abuse and intellectual disabilities, said Rob Robinson, the organization's chief executive officer.

It is not a service provider but rather a manager of a system that contracts with 2,500 providers, Robinson said.

During the past two years, the state has cut about $252 million from LME/MCOs in the state -- and about $26 million from Alliance specifically, he said.

"The legislation also required the continued services at the same level prior to the cuts, which forced us to use our savings to cover those services," Robinson said.

Those savings were to expand and improve services, he said.

"We are excited about our reinvestment plan ... which should be about increasing funding, not decreasing funding, and we'll settle for at least don't cut us anymore," Robinson said.

With Durham County providing about $6.6 million to Alliance for services specific for Durham County residents, Commissioner Heidi Carter said if the state funding is not restored, it's an additional local pressure.

"We just see that happening everywhere -- in education, in mental health and healthcare -- from the state and local sources," Carter said.

Commissioners' Chairwoman Wendy Jacobs said maintaining funding for Alliance and other LME/MCOs is critical.

"THe LME/MCOs are going to be where the treatment and the prevention are going to take place," Jacobs said.

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