Grand Junction psych hospital is getting Medicaid payments again; state finds most problems fixed
A recent audit has put West Springs Hospital back in good standing with the state after a tumultuous year, and the psychiatric care provider has started to receive Medicaid payments again.
Mind Springs Health, West Springs’ operator, provides outpatient mental health and addiction treatment for most of western Colorado. On Monday, it announced that Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration had ruled the hospital was in compliance with state regulations.
Mind Springs CEO John Sheehan said the BHA found 22 violations of its rules for patient care in October. When inspectors returned Thursday, they found two violations and were satisfied with a plan to correct them, he said.
He declined to specify the nature of the violations, and an inspection report wasn’t yet available on the state’s website.
“They were not critical patient safety issues,” he said. “The process that we’re employing is clearly working.”
The BHA didn’t have an immediate statement about the audit on Monday.
Rocky Mountain Health Plans, which administers Medicaid on the Western Slope, has resumed paying for new admissions to West Springs. The insurer halted payments in October, following a complaint filed by two former employees. The hospital continued admitting patients insured by Medicaid during that time, and RMHP is retroactively paying those claims, Sheehan said.
The last year has been turbulent for the organization. In January 2022, three state agencies announced that they were investigating Mind Springs. An audit they released in May didn’t find any evidence of fraud but noted a lack of transparency and said services didn’t match community needs.
About the same time the state audit came out, a group of former employees alleged fraud, saying they’d been asked to fill out paperwork as if they’d seen patients they hadn’t. Mind Springs denied the allegations, and state agencies haven’t said if they believe the claim has merit.
An inspection by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in October faulted West Springs Hospital for never opening its psychiatric emergency room and for potential security risks when transferring patients between buildings on its campus.
In December, Mind Springs announced the health department was satisfied with its plans to open the emergency room and to enclose a path to its auxiliary building before using it for patients again.
The psychiatric emergency room is now open, though the hospital and law enforcement are still working out hand-off procedures for people in custody.
Sheehan, who took over in August, said that getting back into compliance with the state was a first step toward improving care. With that done, the focus can shift toward making sure the organization is properly assessing patients’ needs and getting them the right level of care, he said — whether they seek outpatient help or come in during a crisis.
“Compliance is not quality, and so clinical excellence is something we’re working on every day,” Sheehan said.
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