Behavioral health staff report hiring, QA updates, MHSA/BHSA planning and Medicare policy work

Plumas County Behavioral Health staff summarized operational and programmatic work including hiring needs, a recent budget surplus, policy drafts, and state reporting tasks.

Sharon and staff reported a roughly $1 million surplus in current operating projections; staff proposed placing half in a prudent reserve and using the other half for recruitment and longevity incentives for clinicians pending completion of the county salary survey. Staff said they would check legal restrictions with county counsel before finalizing any use of the funds.

Quality‑assurance staff (Jessica) said the department submitted a letter of intent to the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to support Medi‑Cal‑reimbursed peer support services and that the department is on a corrective action plan for mobile crisis implementation. Jessica presented grievance statistics for the fiscal year: 14 grievances and zero appeals; five of the 14 were found to be founded.

Christy Pearson, MHSA/BHSA lead, said access to the state's online integrated BHSA plan portal had just been granted and staff are working with fiscal staff to map programmatic funding into the online plan. Christy is conducting a stakeholder survey and requested assistance from commission members to distribute the survey; she also described outreach to schools and community events to increase response rates.

Staff also described a new Medicare documentation policy draft to clarify which licensed staff can bill Medicare, and scheduling/appointment management guidelines to improve penetration rates (staff target is 80% of open charts receiving a service within a month; August performance was 73%). Jessica said the department saw no mobile‑crisis requests for August and had one psychiatric placement for a county Medi‑Cal resident during the month.

Ending: Staff requested commissioner feedback on draft policies and said they would present a report to the board about reserve recommendations and proposed recruitment incentives once counsel reviews restrictions on use of surplus funds.