Bay County commissioners approve resolution opposing MDHHS behavioral-health procurement plan

The Bay County Board of Commissioners on July 15 approved a resolution opposing a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) plan to reorganize behavioral-health procurement and shift responsibility to larger, commercially managed entities.

Chris (presenter; affiliation stated in the meeting but not identified by full transcript name) explained to commissioners that the proposed procurement would replace long-standing state–county behavioral-health arrangements and concentrate the regional fiscal management into fewer, larger entities. He said the department’s plan, as presented, would reduce county governance of local mental-health payer structures and could conflict with existing state mental-health statute and the mental-health code, which historically preserves a county role in local program governance.

Chris argued the change would place decision-making farther from the people receiving services and from locally elected officials who are accountable to residents. He and supportive commissioners said the county system was created to serve people with severe and persistent needs and that removing local oversight could create “moral hazard” because commercial managers would not live in or be directly accountable to Bay County residents.

Commissioners discussed the issue and several spoke in support of the resolution; the board approved the resolution by motion. The resolution asks MDHHS and state legislators to preserve the county-based structure and urged local and state officials to protect the separation of specialty behavioral-health services from general commercial health-care procurement and management.

The board voted to send copies of the resolution to the governor, the county’s state legislative representatives and other counties, the presenter said.