$2M budget shortfall means staff, program cuts

About 80 staff, stakeholders, patients and their families gathered Monday evening to learn more about a $2 million budget hole facing Ottawa County’s Community Mental Health.

Changes and cuts to the agency’s stream of Medicaid funding, as well as cuts in the funding it receives from the state of Michigan, are largely to blame for the unexpected shortfall in the 2015-16 budget, said Executive Director Lynne Doyle.

The shortfall has already meant a round of layoffs — and will mean another round of staff cuts will be coming.

Doyle promised the crowd at the meeting that each client would be made aware of changes to their services before they happened.

Exactly how future programmatic cuts will be made has yet to be seen, Doyle said, noting that there will be reductions in the number of days a client will receive programming and that the amount of money available for short-term “respite” care will be reduced. Doyle said CMH would do its best to spread budget cuts equally among programs for the mentally ill, developmentally disabled and those abusing substances.

The adult day program CMH ran in Ferrysburg has closed, and those using that program have been switched to Coopersville or Holland. Some services for the mentally ill who need lower levels of care will be contracted out to other agencies, as CMH already does for children.

“Everyone’s worst fear is that their loved one goes home and doesn’t do anything,” Doyle said. “Our challenge is to find ways to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

CMH is considering asking for a millage in 2016 to support mental health services, Doyle said.

Finding creative funding solutions and more sustainable ways to offer programs are efforts the CMH is engaged in, Doyle said.

“It’s going to look different, but different doesn’t need to be bad,” Doyle said.

The Monday meeting, held in the basement of the Department of Human Services office on James Street in Holland Township, inspired many in attendance to question the source of the cuts. Doyle asked those in attendance to look to their legislators and to ask for equitable, adequate funding for mental health.

Ottawa CMH was recently integrated into a new regional partnership with six other Michigan counties for its Medicaid funding. The partnership saw a cut of $10 million in Medicaid funding. Medicaid accounts for 94 percent of Ottawa County CMH’s $38 million budget.

The CMH also was hit with a 62 percent reduction in its funding from the state’s general fund — a drop from $3.5 million in fiscal 2014 to $1.4 million in fiscal 2015.

The state reduced its general funding to the CMH because of the recent expansion of Medicaid under the Healthy Michigan Plan — a product of Affordable Care Act reforms. Because more patients in the state are covered by health insurance, the state decreased its funding to the CMH. But it’s not a true offset: the Healthy Michigan Plan funding can’t be used to pay for services and programs the general fund dollars were previously supporting, Doyle said.

— Follow this reporter on Twitter @SentinelAmy.