An administrative law judge on Friday put a temporary stop to the state assigning adult care homes a special status that cuts off their federal Medicaid payments.
A group of adult care homes went to court this week to ask that the state Department of Health and Human Services no longer be allowed to designate certain adult care homes “institutes of mental disease.”
To comply with federal rules, the state is surveying adult care homes to determine how many of their residents are mentally ill. Adult care homes have long offered housing for mentally ill people, but the practice conflicts with federal policy.
Senior Administrative Law Judge Fred G. Morrison Jr. granted a temporary restraining order Friday telling the DHHS it could continue its surveys but that it could not take the final step to stop the flow of Medicaid money from adult care homes they find to be violating federal rules before June 28.
The federal Medicaid program won’t reimburse adult care homes where more than half the residents have mental illness as a primary diagnosis.
The adult care homes said losing the federal money would create a financial hardship because the government health insurance program pays more than 40 percent of each eligible patient’s yearly costs.
Comments
PRIMARY DIAGNOSIS?hihis
June 15, 2012 - 3:10pm — mrpoonThat is what is states but the NC DHHS has their own definition of mentally ill.It only requires one drug classified as a psycho-genic or psycho-tropic be given and walla you are declared mentally ill by North Carolina irregardless of the primary diagnosis.That lumps anyone taking a drug for anxiety or panic attacks with psychotics and schizophrenics.Even the Alzheimers victims would be classified as mentally ill leaving no place to go and no care.Currently assisted living homes have special designed facilities and licenses to care for the memory impaired.
This is just a ploy by the so-called disabilities rights oganizations to force those out of their current homes where they are well taken care of and happy only to force the state to build facilities that the disabilty rights organizations would then run the same way the client is being cared for now except the cost would be many times the curreent cost and the disability rights group would make millions off the taxpayers backs.
They can't get their way with the 50% rule so they get the NC DHHS to change the definition.
This is the def of mental health below and almost all in assisted living and adult care homes fit this