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Blue Earth County updates mental health clinic fee policy to maximize insurance reimbursements and revise sliding fee
Summary
The county approved a change to human services fee policy for its mental health center to bill insurance at insurer rates (MA rates unchanged) and adopt a revised sliding-fee scale for out-of-pocket payers; staff said the change is intended to increase revenue while holding low-income clients harmless and will provide a ballpark revenue estimate on request.
Blue Earth County commissioners on Aug. 19 approved revisions to the county human services fee policy specific to the county mental health center intended to increase revenue from insured payers while protecting low-income and Medical Assistance (MA) recipients.
A Human Services presenter explained that the county has historically set rates at the MA reimbursement level (the lowest payer), and the proposed change would set the clinic's standard rate at typical insurance reimbursements while keeping MA recipients' rates unchanged because statute forbids charging above MA for those clients. The county will also implement a revised sliding-fee scale for out-of-pocket payers based on income to ensure those clients are held harmless.
A commissioner asked for an estimate of the revenue that would be recovered. The presenter said a ballpark figure was not immediately available but that staff would send commissioners an estimate of potential recoveries and payer-mix assumptions. Commissioners debated the size of some fee increases in the packet and acknowledged this is an initial, larger adjustment with additional fee-policy items to be considered at a future fee-policy review.
The board moved, seconded and unanimously approved the fee-policy changes as presented.
Provenance: Topic introduced at SEG 1068 (topicintro) and motion and vote recorded at SEG 1253–1261 (topicfinish).
