Emergency bill passes to help psychiatric center
The Maine Legislature passed LD 1515, a bill that expands the available resources at the state’s Riverview Psychiatric Center.
The bill, passed Thursday, was first offered by Gov. Paul LePage in May. It adds 14 new mental health workers to a 32-bed mental health unit inside the state prison in Warren, the Bangor Daily News writes.
The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services also approved a correction action plan after patient and staff safety problems were discovered during an inspection in March.
The House approved the bill 11508, and the Senate passed it 32-0. Before the votes, legislators significantly amended the bill to strictly limit who could be sent to the prison facility, the newspaper noted.
At risk is about $20 million in federal funding that would have been cut if the federal government didn’t approve the state’s plan to fix the hospital’s problems.
Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew told lawmakers on Thursday that DHHS remained in negotiations with the federal government, the newspaper reported. She said she had not yet received written confirmation that the state’s latest plan would be accepted, but she was “optimistic based on oral conversations that they are increasingly satisfied with what has been submitted.”
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