Mental health merger to bring more service to Chapel Hill residents

A merger between two mental health care management entities could bring more quality health services to county residents.

Judy Truitt, director of the OPC Area Program that serves Orange, Person and Chatham counties, said the program began seeking a partner after the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services began requiring smaller programs to merge March 31.

Truitt said OPC, which manages publicly funded mental health, developmental disability and substance abuse services, has decided to merge with Piedmont Behavioral Healthcare, which serves Cabarrus, Union, Davidson, Stanly and Rowan counties.

OPC and other local management entities that don’t fit the new regulations were given until May 20 to find a partner before the state intervened.

Truitt said her program moved forward in negotiations with PBH because PBH is the only program in the state that uses the Medicaid waiver.

“We’ve been looking at PBH and how they run the waiver, and we’ve been very impressed00 with what we’ve seen,” Truitt said.

PBH spokeswoman Deanna Campbell said although her organization currently meets the state’s minimum service population of 200,000, the group looks forward to the merger.

“We could have continued by ourselves, but we didn’t really want to,” Campbell said. “We wanted to partner with other entities and teach them how to do (the waiver) the way we do it.”

Campbell said using the waiver allows her organization to control its provider network by enforcing more stringent rules.

“(The waiver) allows us to ensure that consumers get the right amount of service, for the right amount of time with the right provider,” she said.

Campbell said the merger will allow the programs to provide a greater variety of services to residents in a cost-efficient manner.

“In today’s society we really have very limited dollars to provide these kinds of services,” she said. “When you have lots of little offices with duplicative administrative positions, you have money that could be used for services.”

Bernadette Pelissier, chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, said some residents are concerned the merger could cut services.

But Pelissier said she does not believe this will be the case.

“You’ll have everything under one roof — Medicaid and non Medicaid folks,” she said. “You can really look at the spectrum of services and make sure it’s the right kind of services that are right for the residents.”

The board will vote on the merger, which could be completed by mid-2012 if approved, at its May 17 meeting.

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