June 9th, 2008

Since 1994,  funding for mental health and mental retardation (MH – MR) service providers across the state has fallen 33.01% behind the rate of inflation.  In the past 12 months alone there has been a 3% inflation rate increase, which includes utilities and food prices, meaning that if there is no cost of living adjustment (COLA) this year, these providers will work at 37.69% behind inflation over the course of 15 years.  But yet the proposed budget for this coming fiscal year still includes no COLA for MH – MR program providers, reports the Williamsport Sun-Gazette.

James Campbell, President of Hope Enterprises,  (a fully-state funded Mental Health agency) along with the state Mental Health-Mental Retardation Coalition and state Association of Rehabilitation Facilities are all fighting for an annual guaranteed cost of living increase equal to the rate of inflation.  Last year the House and Senate passed a bill that required a COLA based on inflation which Gov. Rendell then vetoed.  He then later approved a mere 3% increase.

The  Sun-Gazette reports:

“Flat funding often means a loss of employees. ‘In this region, we turn about 30 percent of the agency over each year and that’s a scary thing for consistency of care,’ Campbell said.

Campbell said the agency will ‘never catch up’ from being 37.69 percent behind inflation, and the ability to fund programs is not Hope’s only concern.

‘We’re just trying to stop this falling behind. We’ve been able to survive on what we have had. But we’re running out of things to do, how to cut costs and still provide quality services to people that are in need. We’ve tried every trick in the book to try and retain good people.’”

Direct support professionals empoyed at community MH-MR programs have an average annual salary of only $16,824.  In addition to poor salaries, this flat-funding has caused wait-lists across the state for people needing support that can’t be funded, said  Campbell.

Campbell explains that this year, like years past, MH-MR providers are fighting not only to get a COLA but trying to get one guaranteed with each year’s budget.

A bill that would grant this guarantee, sponsored by Sen. Erickson (SB 1373), passed the Senate on Tues. June 3rd, and has moved onto the House Health and Human Services Committee.  However, the companion bill in the House (HB 2241) sponsored by Rep. Barbara McIlvaine-Smith has not yet seen debate in the Democrat-controlled House as it has been stuck in the House Appropriations Committee since May.

State Rep. Garth Everett stated that he’d “love” to debate and vote on the House bill, but they haven’t had the chance yet “because of the way the budget is being held up”.

[HealthpointPA note: Gov. Rendell, Administration Officials, and the Department of Public Welfare all contend that COLA's for MH-MR facilities and other non-medical provders are not affordable in the current budget -- but one way to make them affordable in the future is to support the DPW pharmacy carve-out plan.  Many legislators, including most of the GOP, remain very skeptical of the carve-out.  Read more about this isssue in Healthpoint's June 2nd budget update].