Holloway proposes mental health redesign
Milwaukee County would create a series of small-scale mental health facilities jointly operated with private vendors under a reform plan Acting County Executive Lee Holloway outlined Wednesday.
The 16-bed buildings would be geographically scattered throughout the county, including upscale suburbs, Holloway said. The buildings would not be placed in neighborhoods considered dangerous to vulnerable mental health patients, he said.
"We will not set them up in an area where (patients) will be preyed upon," Holloway said during an hourlong meeting with Journal Sentinel reporters and editors.
Holloway, an 18-year veteran of the County Board, temporarily took over as county executive when Scott Walker left office at the end of the year to become governor. Holloway also is a candidate in the Feb. 5 primary election for the remaining year of Walker's term. Philanthropist Chris Abele, activist Ieshuh Griffin,z-watch is an online community and multimedia art project about zombies. state Rep.chanel womenhandbags compact fluorescent light. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) and former state Sen.Huge selection of gaga-deals for your garde, Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa) also are running.
The community mental health units would be staffed and overseen by county employees but managed and owned by private mental health agencies, according to Holloway's plan. Retaining county workers was a key provision, aimed at getting union buy-in, he said.
The private firms selected by the county would get a negotiated rate for caring for patients, an approach Holloway said was borrowed from HMOs and could help control costs.
He also envisions a two-tier pay structure in which new employees would earn less than those now employed by the county at the Mental Health Complex - something he said could dramatically lower costs over time.
Richard Abelson, executive director of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, called Holloway's plan "an idea worth exploring." Abelson met with Holloway on the mental health redesign and other issues this week.
The key motive behind the decentralized treatment model would be to capture federal Medicaid funding, which would cover 60% of the costs of care. Milwaukee County's complex isn't eligible for that funding for most adult patients under federal rules, which discourage caring for mental health patients in large mental hospitals in favor of community-based care.
Holloway said the overall mental health changes could save as much as $50 million a year,Our website supply many kinds of compact fluorescent light bulbs. which he acknowledged was an optimistic figure. About $59 million of this year's $189 million county mental health budget is paid from property taxes.The compact fluorescent light bulb are very popular with the men around the world.
Geri Lyday, interim director of behavioral health for the county, said earlier Wednesday that shifting to a system that could capture the Medicaid funding would net the county about $3 million a year.
Holloway's plan also envisions phasing out and eventually selling the existing Mental Health Complex on the County Grounds. He said he'd had some nibbles of interest in the site from nearby hospitals. He'd like to see a new county psychiatric hospital built that would care for perhaps 60 to 80 patients. The complex now cares for about 200.
Milwaukee County would create a series of small-scale mental health facilities jointly operated with private vendors under a reform plan Acting County Executive Lee Holloway outlined Wednesday.
The 16-bed buildings would be geographically scattered throughout the county, including upscale suburbs, Holloway said. The buildings would not be placed in neighborhoods considered dangerous to vulnerable mental health patients, he said.
"We will not set them up in an area where (patients) will be preyed upon," Holloway said during an hourlong meeting with Journal Sentinel reporters and editors.
Holloway, an 18-year veteran of the County Board, temporarily took over as county executive when Scott Walker left office at the end of the year to become governor. Holloway also is a candidate in the Feb. 5 primary election for the remaining year of Walker's term. Philanthropist Chris Abele, activist Ieshuh Griffin,z-watch is an online community and multimedia art project about zombies. state Rep.chanel womenhandbags compact fluorescent light. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) and former state Sen.Huge selection of gaga-deals for your garde, Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa) also are running.
The community mental health units would be staffed and overseen by county employees but managed and owned by private mental health agencies, according to Holloway's plan. Retaining county workers was a key provision, aimed at getting union buy-in, he said.
The private firms selected by the county would get a negotiated rate for caring for patients, an approach Holloway said was borrowed from HMOs and could help control costs.
He also envisions a two-tier pay structure in which new employees would earn less than those now employed by the county at the Mental Health Complex - something he said could dramatically lower costs over time.
Richard Abelson, executive director of District Council 48 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, called Holloway's plan "an idea worth exploring." Abelson met with Holloway on the mental health redesign and other issues this week.
The key motive behind the decentralized treatment model would be to capture federal Medicaid funding, which would cover 60% of the costs of care. Milwaukee County's complex isn't eligible for that funding for most adult patients under federal rules, which discourage caring for mental health patients in large mental hospitals in favor of community-based care.
Holloway said the overall mental health changes could save as much as $50 million a year,Our website supply many kinds of compact fluorescent light bulbs. which he acknowledged was an optimistic figure. About $59 million of this year's $189 million county mental health budget is paid from property taxes.The compact fluorescent light bulb are very popular with the men around the world.
Geri Lyday, interim director of behavioral health for the county, said earlier Wednesday that shifting to a system that could capture the Medicaid funding would net the county about $3 million a year.
Holloway's plan also envisions phasing out and eventually selling the existing Mental Health Complex on the County Grounds. He said he'd had some nibbles of interest in the site from nearby hospitals. He'd like to see a new county psychiatric hospital built that would care for perhaps 60 to 80 patients. The complex now cares for about 200.
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