Crisis of Leadership: CMS Terminates Funding for Montana State Hospital

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, April 11, 2022

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press@montanademocrats.org

Crisis of Leadership: CMS Terminates Funding for Montana State Hospital

Huge potential consequences for public safety and MT’s mental health care

Helena, MT – Friday night, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent a letter to Montana State Hospital (MSH) in Warm Springs announcing they were terminating their provider agreement as of April 12, 2022 because “conditions [at the Hospital] placed patients in immediate jeopardy” and the Hospital had taken no steps to correct the problems.

CMS imposed an “immediate jeopardy” designation on the Montana Department of Health and Human Services (DPHHS) in February, after four patients died in what investigators said were “preventable” deaths.

Involuntary termination of funding is “generally a last resort after all other attempts to remedy the deficiencies at a facility have been exhausted,” according to CMS. The consequences of CMS funding termination are far-reaching and have the capacity to reach every community in the state. Montanans deserve answers.

We have some questions for Governor Gianforte and Director Meier: 

• Under your leadership, the State Hospital ignored established COVID protocols during the outbreak, pulled back the COVID differential funding that had previously succeeded at retaining staff, and refused to use the National Guard to do support work so the trained staff could deal with the medical and emotional needs of patients– leading to a “fast-moving staff exodus.” You had money and solutions at your disposal to address these staffing shortages and you took no steps to address them. A hospital is the last place you’d ‘throw in the towel,’ especially one that houses some of our state’s most vulnerable patients. Why did you take no substantive steps to fix the staffing shortage?

• The nonchalant way you approached the clear crisis at the State Hospital gives the impression that you didn’t actually care to fix the problems in the first place. Is this an attempt to defund our public institutions and our state’s mental health care?

• Which “outside experts” are you working with?

• Four patients died under your leadership, and another was airlifted out after another patient brutally attacked them – why are you still blaming the last administration instead of taking ownership of your mistakes?

• If the State Hospital gets shut down, what will you say to the Montanans who will be losing good paying, union jobs?

• If the State Hospital gets shut down, what will you say to Montanans who count on it as a last-resort provider of mental health care?

• When county attorneys and judges doubt a defendant’s ability to participate in their own defense, they are sent to the State Hospital for a determination to see if they meet the “fitness to proceed.” The State Hospital is also the place where defendants able to be “restored to fitness” are sent to receive treatment in order to participate in their own defense. If the State Hospital can no longer take these patients, county attorneys will likely be forced to drop these cases, putting our communities’ safety at risk. What are you planning on doing to address this dire public safety and community mental health concern?

“This goes far beyond politics – this is a crisis of leadership,” says Sheila Hogan, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party. “This is not an issue that exists simply inside the four walls of the State Hospital. This has far reaching consequences for our most at-risk patients, the Warm Springs and Anaconda workforce, our already overburdened criminal justice system, and our community public safety statewide.”  

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