Members of the new Milwaukee County Mental Health Board seemed a bit confused at their June 25 meeting about their plan to privatize acute care for those with mental health issues.
The board, created by Republican legislators and backed by Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele last year, is made up of appointees representing health care providers and the community and now oversees all of the county’s mental health services.
In April, the board gave the go-ahead to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for the county’s acute care services. The county is in the process of downsizing its mental health services and Behavioral Health Division (BHD) administrators have developed a strategic plan to create two community-based facilities, an administrative facility, and privatized acute care services while it contemplates building a new in-patient facility.
The administration plans to issue the acute care RFP in July.
But the board, concerned about the lack of public awareness about its outsourcing plans, voted to allow rare public input at its next meeting, before the RFP is sent to interested bidders. The meeting will be held on Thursday, July 9, 3 p.m., at the Mental Health Complex auditorium, 9455 Watertown Plank Road.
The board then voted to continue exploring a general policy of privatizing its acute care services.
Potential for Conflicts of Interest
Although the board is a public entity and utilizes public funds, the Republican law that created it only gave the board loose operating guidelines. It rarely allows public testimony, doesn’t videotape its meetings, provides a bare minimum of information about its agendas and minutes on its website, and posts difficult-to-understand audio recordings of its meetings.
That loose governing structure came back to haunt the board last week, when members appeared to be confused about what they’d actually approved when the BHD administration sought to issue the acute care RFP. Some thought it was only for acute care services, but it appears to be broader than that.
Alicia Modjeska, a BHD administrator, testified that the RFP was “specifically for the provider of crisis emergency department, observation and in-patient care, acute adult, child and adolescent services for the Behavioral Health Division, including high-acuity and involuntary detention services.”
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The administration has formed an RFP review panel, which will select a vendor and then will bring a recommended contract to the board. If none of the bids are satisfactory, then no contract will be awarded.
Only two board members know the details of the RFP. That secrecy is necessary, said Health and Human Services Director Hector Colon, since some members of the board work for private health care systems and may be linked to potential bidders, posing a conflict of interest for the board member or unfair advantage to the bidder.
“That’s one of the challenges we have, sharing too much information,” Colon said.
Board member Mary Neubauer, a social worker, said she wanted more input from the public, especially from those who would be affected by the potential privatization.
“This is big,” Neubauer said.
