North Carolina Budget Deficit Might Jeopardize Plan To Privatize Mental Health System

North Carolina mental health advocates and providers are concerned that the state's budget deficit may "delay or derail" a plan to privatize most mental health services, the Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area reports. The plan calls for public mental health centers over the next five years to transform "from places where the mentally ill are actually treated to places that contract most or all of their services to private providers." In addition, patients would be moved out of state-run mental health institutions and into community-based care centers. When lawmakers approved the plan last year, they allocated $47.5 million toward a mental health trust fund that would pay for some of the start-up costs to set up community-based treatment. But with the state budget deficit estimated to be as high as $1.5 billion, lawmakers reduced the size of the trust fund to $12 million. "The success of this plan hinges on a reimbursement structure that would support the plan, and right now that's absent," John Moon, area director of the Alamance Caswell Mental Health Program, said. Providers and advocates are concerned that proceeding with the privatization plan without adequate funding could threaten the continuity of care for current mental health patients. They also worry that the private sector will not have the capacity to handle the influx of patients and as a result, many patients will seek care at emergency rooms. State regulators next month will issue revised guidelines governing the new system (Barnes, Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area, 5/10).