Accounting Error Forces Michigan to Cut More Than $2M from Local Outreach Programs

The Michigan Department of Community Health is cutting more than $2 million from a $7.6 million fund used for local outreach programs that provide prenatal care for pregnant women and help find health insurance for children, the Detroit Free Press reports. The Detroit Health Department will lose $500,000 from its $1.8 million outreach budget, the Oakland County Health Department will lose $93,000 of its $354,000 budget and the Macomb County Health Department will lose $55,000 of its $209,000 budget. The outreach money is used for programs that help people find health coverage and provide individuals with transportation to and from doctors appointments. According to Geralyn Lasher, a spokesperson for MDCH, last year's budget for the budget was $17 million short. As a result, Michigan officials reduced all county health departments' 2001 budgets, but the amounts were mistakenly restored in the 2002 budgets. The accounting error was discovered last week, and the state health department sent letters to county health departments notifying them of the alteration. The cuts are retroactive to Oct. 1, the date the 2002 budgets began. "No one likes to have to make reductions ... but when you have limited dollars, you have to make very difficult decisions," Lasher said. Critics of the adjustment called the cuts "short-sighted." Judith West, interim deputy director of the Detroit Health Department, said, "While we understand the need to adjust the state budget, crippling the safety net that cares for Detroit's underserved families sacrifices our future." However, Lasher said "there should be plenty of money left" for the outreach programs (Wendland-Bowyer, Detroit Free Press, 1/18).