Orange County mental health care group merger delayed until April 2012

Mental health awareness week might be drawing to a close, but a merger that would combine mental health care in Orange County with nearby groups is taking longer than expected.

The mental health care program that manages the services for providers in Orange, Person and Chatham counties approved a merger with Piedmont Behavioral Healthcare earlier this year.

The merger was meant to be completed in early 2012, but has been moved back to April 2012 so that Piedmont’s provider could merge with other smaller mental health care groups first, said Judy Truitt, OPC area director.

The merger was set in motion after new N.C. Department of Health and Human Services regulations required smaller providers to merge with larger entities and implement Medicaid waivers locally.

Those waivers reimburse service providers for costs Medicaid patients incur.

Truitt said the merger will bring state and Medicaid funding under the control of one umbrella, possibly cutting costs and increasing service availability by improving efficiency.

“Our expectation is that it will maximize what we have available in the community,” she said.

Piedmont Behavioral Healthcare, which serves Cabarrus, Davidson, Rowan, Stanly and Union counties, has led the state in implementing the Medicaid waiver. Truitt said that attracted OPC to merging with the entity.

Julie Bailey, interim executive director of Mental Health America of the Triangle, said she hopes the new waiver will allow more control of how money is spent locally, eliminating the middleman in Medicaid reimbursements.

“I support any effort that has the potential to provide more efficient treatment services,” she said.

But she said she still has concerns.

“Anytime you implement change I think people have a hard time embracing new concepts,” she said. “We’ve heard the plan but not knowing exactly … who will control what portion, and how much funding will remain available … is a definite fear.”

Bernadette Pelissier, chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, said her main concern is maintaining the service levels for county residents.

“I want to make sure our county residents continue to receive the level of health care they received previous the merger,” she said.

After the merger is completed, the merged providers will create community centers to handle Medicaid reimbursements in the 15 counties they oversee.

The centers will act as the primary contact for local service providers and Medicaid operations.

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.