Delays in LA County DMH's IBHIS & EDI

Delays in LA County DMH's IBHIS & EDI

The announcement by LA County DMH revoking their IBHIS RFP sent a shock wave through the provider community. The announcement gave no specific reason for the retraction of this very large RFP, so of course we all supposed it had to do with the state and county budget issues, and we all assumed this meant the imminent release of MHSA funding to providers was not forthcoming due to this bad news .................. if you read this memo sent to the Supervisors you will see a bit more explanation.

http://file.lacounty.gov/bc/q2_2009/cms1_129849.pdf

Here's what I have learned about this announcement and the status of the MHSA funding for providers.

Bob Greenless of LA County DMH has since confirmed that the reason for pulling back their IBHIS RFP is in part due to the provider CPE reimbursement specification changes required by the state, and that the cancellation of the RFP does not signal a change in their MHSA IT Plan.

We have also been able to confirm the status of the MHSA funding process, as follows:

As you know, there are 6 projects in the County's IT Plan submitted to the state, one being the IBHIS project and another being the CPTT project for release of funds to the contract providers. My understanding from DMH, is that the IBHIS project has been approved, even though the RFP is now pending, and the CPTT project is being reviewed by the state now.

For the CPTT project , the County is currently responding to a request for additional information about the contract providers' projects. There is disagreement between the State and the County as to what level of detail should be required. Mr. Greenless hopes for a resolution and release of funds soon.

There is also much misunderstanding about the MHSA funding and the relationship to the State and County budget crisis and the ballots up for our vote next month. ACHSA has confirmed for me that the $69M allocated to MHSA Phase I which we have all been waiting for and that which is in review now at the state level (see above), is not up for grabs in these ballot measures. The County has not yet submitted their IT plan for the second phase consisting of $21M, but ACHSA believes this pot of funds is also not at risk with the current ballot measures, (however, there is some other MHSA reserve funding that is unallocated and may be at risk).

Hope that helps clear up some of the confusion.