Montgomery County, PA

Starting with the following report I will be utilizing our Web site to communicate with you the community.  Hopefully you will find the information useful.

We still do not have a State budget as of this writing but efforts to minimize the impact of this stalemate are underway.  A number of Providers are still receiving payments if they are funded through Health Choices or are eligible to bill through Promise.  That simply means providers who are funded by Medical Assistance.  Montgomery County is also reviewing emergency payments for providers who are not funded by Medical Assistance.  Providers in this category must also be those who provide critical services and are unable to utilize their own financial stop gap measures.  I am pleased to say that services so far have not been interrupted.

Progress and change are still the business of the day in many areas and I would like to share some of these activities with you.

The County is involved in a competitive procurement process for a Behavioral Health Managed Care Organization.  We believe that after almost ten years with the same MCO, Magellan, it is prudent at this time to open the bidding process.  Magellan has been invited to be part of the competition and three other companies have also responded to the RFP.  They are Community Behavioral Health Network of PA. (CBHNP), Value Options, Community Care Behavioral Health Organization (CCBHO).  This is a thoughtful and careful process and a decision will be made in late September.

The Office of Mental Health has been involved in an exciting project that is finally in full operation.  The Behavioral Health Court has been established as a partnership between the County forensic system and Montgomery County OMH.   This program is a strategy to prevent time in jail for people whose mental illness has been a major contributor to their offense.  Hopefully, it will reduce the amount of people in the prisons and offer a better quality of life for the person while protecting the community.

Our Drug and Alcohol Office has brought 10 school districts together for the purpose of a comprehensive and thorough survey. The results of these surveys will go a long way to help us identify and provide answers for behavioral problems in our schools.

The Office of Developmental Disabilities has been reaching out to the community, introducing themselves and offering informative and helpful information at these meetings.  Meeting s were held on March 26, 2009  Ken Crest Company in Pottstown and May 28, 2009 at Dresher Estates.  A wonderful example of the success of this initiative occurred when a family member of a consumer not only came to the meeting but was the emcee and host of the meeting in Dresher.