Medicaid insurers have agreed to pay $25 million from their profits to help fund behavioral health projects focused on youth, Gov. Tina Kotek announced on Thursday.
Kotek had asked Oregon’s 16 regionally based Medicaid insurers – also called coordinated care organizations – to reinvest $25 million of their profits into community projects in part because of record amounts the organizations reaped during the COVID-19 pandemic. Medicaid insurers are paid taxpayer dollars from the state and federal government to pay for health and dental care for about 1.45 million people on the Oregon Health Plan, which serves low-income Oregonians. The insurers are allowed to pocket any surplus money after they’ve met their obligations as profits.
After Kotek’s request, the coordinated care organizations decided to put a one-time allotment toward four projects across the state to help address the gaps in behavioral health care coverage. The coordinated care organizations, their providers and Oregon Health Authority all signed an agreement on Thursday, the governor’s office said.
“Oregon needs more treatment options to help young people in our state who are struggling with serious behavioral health issues,” Kotek said. “The state and CCOs developed a plan to reinvest surplus Medicaid dollars into Oregon communities, and this partnership will support youth behavioral health projects that we desperately need.”
Details for most of the projects – including how many beds they will add to the state’s behavioral health facilities for youth, weren’t immediately available on Thursday. But the money will help projects across the state add dozens of beds to projects, some of them already underway.
For example, $7.5 million will go toward a project based in Douglas County through Adapt Integrated Health Care, a southern Oregon provider. The campus project, already underway on 40 acres east of Roseburg, will more than triple its capacity from 40 beds to about 118 beds.
“Adapt has developed plans for a Recovery Campus and with the generous support of the CCOs, under Governor Kotek’s leadership, we now have the funding to move forward on construction,” Dr. Greg Brigham, CEO of Adapt Integrated Health Care, said in a statement.
He said the funding will help the project replace antiquated facilities and grow.
“This resource will result in access to life saving care for those who need it, when they need it.”
There are three other projects across the state that will receive funding to add psychiatric residential treatment beds for youth.
They are:
$13.2 million to the Trillium Family Services for expansion in the Portland metro area. $2.3 million for a project overseen by Looking Glass Community Services in Lane County to expand capacity. $2 million to Community Counseling Solutions, an eastern Oregon provider that serves Morrow, Grant, Gilliam, Wheeler and Umatilla counties.
In a statement, Behavioral Health Director Ebony Clarke said the work will help address statewide challenges.
“These investments will help spur and close projects that will propel the state forward in closing key program gaps that have been exacerbated by fentanyl in recent years,” Larke said. “I look forward to this partnership making a real difference in Oregon communities.”
Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization CEO Sean Jessup said in a statement they came together collectively for the “benefit of all members.”
by Ben Botkin, Oregon Capital Chronicle
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