Excess mental health costs: $226 m

markjohnson — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:26:44 -0400

North Carolina spent up to $226 million in unnecessary costs after launching ill-fated mental health reforms in 2006.

The legislature's Program Evaluation Division released a report today saying that the Enhanced Services Package portion of mental health reform that the legislature put in place cost $2.4 billion between April 2006 and Febuary 2009. Most of that was federal money, but the state paid $827 million.

The Program Evaluation Division reported that advanced planning and oversight could have saved at least $177 million and as much as $226 million. Division staff are scheduled to present their findings to the division's oversight committee at 2 p.m. in room 544 of the Legislative Office Building.