They said that while Medicaid expansion has reduced patients, it doesn’t mean that all needs have been met. He said additional needs could be addressed in future budgets, if need be.Īnnette Dubas, who heads the behavioral health association, and others in her organization disagreed. Lee Will, the governor’s top budget official, agreed, calling the reduction more of a “right sizing” than a cut. “The existing appropriation to the Division of Behavioral Health is sufficient to meet existing needs,” said Powell. Even with the $15 million cut, Powell said about $30 million would be left over in the current year. Jeff Powell, a spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, said in the past two fiscal years, there have been unexpended balances of $35 million and $27 million. Pillen administration officials defended the cut, saying it represents unspent funds that accumulated after Medicaid expansion reduced the patient load and expenses for such regional behavioral health providers. But it feels like we’re finally starting to turn the corner, and now it’s going to get ripped out from underneath us,” said Chase Francl, the CEO of the Mid-Plains Center. “We know the needs are out there, we know they’re growing. In Omaha, the 46-bed CenterPoint Campus for Hope can only operate 26 beds for patients due to a lack of staff, with a list of 80 people waiting to get a bed, and concerns that hiring and services will be harmed by a funding cut. In Grand Island, there’s a wait list of 60 people seeking outpatient counseling for substance abuse at the Mid-Plains Center for Behavioral Health Care Services - a wait list officials there fear will grow without adequate funding. Programs could be cut, wait lines increased She said that CenterPoint’s unique outreach program with homeless people on the streets would be at risk, as would a planned f amily resource and crisis center in Lincoln. All those folks will end up at an emergency room or a jail cell,” said Tami Lewis-Ahrendt, the chief operating officer at Lincoln-based CenterPoint.
“There’s just a ripple of effects if we don’t have this money. They maintain there are plenty of unmet needs involving the mentally ill in Nebraska and that the cut in funding could reduce or eliminate services, forcing more emergency visits to hospitals and more law enforcement calls to deal with mental health crisis situations. Heller, along with members of the Nebraska Association of Behavioral Health Organizations, are pressing for a reversal of a decision by the Pillen administration to cut $15 million from behavioral health care spending. “We do not need another Robert Hawkins (Von Maur), Joseph Jones (Target) or Zachary Bear Heels,” he wrote, referring to a mass shooting in Omaha, the shooting of an armed man inside a west Omaha Target store and an incident in which Bear Heels died in a struggle with Omaha police amid a mental health crisis. “Now is not the time to cut the budget,” Heller said in an open letter to the governor he shared with the Examiner. It could also avoid some violent incidents involving persons with untreated behavioral health needs, he said. Proper funding of such services, Heller maintained, could reduce visits to emergency rooms, homelessness and spending on prisons - which has become one of the state’s top mental health facilities.
Such a reduction would be personal, wrote Tim Heller of Omaha, who has a son with severe and persistent mental illness. Jim Pillen on Tuesday to abandon a proposed $15 million cut in funding for mental health services. LINCOLN - In a blunt letter, the head of an advisory committee on behavioral health care called on Gov.