JACKSON, Mich. (WILX) – Mental health advocates are concerned about the future of patient care as the state health department prepares to shift gears.<\/p>\n
Changes are coming in Michigan for behavioral health services and how they\u2019re provided through Medicaid.<\/p>\n
Behavioral health services are typically provided by local level organizations, but now, the state of Michigan wants to create a bidding pool that could include larger non-profit groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be profit-driven, not care-driven,\u201d said David Lowe, Executive Director of Access and Crisis Services at LifeWays.<\/p>\n
Lowe said the mental health organization prides itself on being connected to the communities it serves in Jackson and Hillsdale counties, but LifeWays leadership is worried about what the health department\u2019s change might bring.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not just a policy change. It is a threat to the public system we have built together with our partners, providers, and\u2014most importantly\u2014our consumers,” LifeWays CEO Maribeth Leonard wrote in a statement sharing fears about the shift. \u201cPrivatization risks fragmenting care, weakening local oversight, and prioritizing profits over people. It would undo decades of work focused on collaboration, community voice, and person-centered recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michigan offers prepaid insurance coverage for people enrolled in Medicaid across the state through a number of contracts based on region.<\/p>\n
In an effort to expand access to behavioral health services, the department is readjusting those regions and asking that nonprofit groups compete with each other for contracts.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd as a result, we\u2019re afraid that moving into a larger system would force us to lose our local level voice and our local level advocacy as it relates to behavioral health policies and procedures and service provisions,\u201d Lowe said.<\/p>\n
Lowe added that it\u2019s because a bidding process opens the door for much larger nonprofits to swoop in and take up the contract for their region, possibly making services less local.<\/p>\n
Not only that; he\u2019s also concerned that LifeWays may not qualify as a bidder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge is that our existing PIHP structure may not be able to exist and be a potential bidder based on the rules and the standards that would be proposed in that bid proposal,\u201d he told News 10.<\/p>\n
In response to LifeWays\u2019 concerns, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued the following statement:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) is changing to a competitive procurement process for the state\u2019s Prepaid Inpatient Health Plan (PIHP) contracts to help ensure Michigan Medicaid beneficiaries have access to behavioral health care services when and where they need them. <\/p>\n
MDHHS proposed the competitive bidding process to address issues within the current PIHP system that compromise service quality, accountability and efficiency. Informed by extensive feedback collected<\/a> through a recent survey of Medicaid beneficiaries and their families, advocacy groups, community-based organizations and other partners, MDHHS identified several issues in the 10-region structure \u2013 fragmentation, service inconsistency, and limited accountability.<\/p>\n The proposed bidding process is designed to mitigate these issues by establishing a more streamlined, transparent and equitable behavioral health framework that better serves Michigan residents and address conflicts of interest that exist within the current system.”<\/p>\n The plan is for the department to open up the bidding process this summer with the goal of starting services in October of 2026.<\/p>\n Subscribe to our News 10 newsletter<\/a> and YouTube page<\/a> to receive the latest local news and weather. Looking to hire people, or grow your business through advertising? Gray Digital Media is your one-stop marketing solution. Learn<\/a> more.<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 WILX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSON, Mich. (WILX) – Mental health advocates are concerned about the future of patient care as the state…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":56058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[210,728,14012,517,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-56057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-mental","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114833012391743166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}