Copper Country Mental Health Services Board s1
COPPER COUNTRY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES BOARD
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014 6:00 PM
MINUTES
Rice Memorial Center
901 W. Memorial Drive
Houghton, MI 49931
CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:56 PM.
ROLL CALL: Board Members Present – James Altenburg, Randy Eckloff, Dyann Edgerton, Carol Evers, James Fyfe, Richard Herrala, Albert Koskela, Mike Koskinen, James Tervo and Patrick Rozich.
ABSENT: Barry Fink.
Mr. Rozich stated that he received a letter from Nancy Middleton this week stating she is moving out of the area and, therefore, resigning from the Copper Country Mental Health Services Board effective immediately.
OTHERS: Vicki Mikkola, Susan Serafini, Cari Raboin, Taryn Mack and Sue Nutini.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA
MOTION by Mr. Tervo, seconded by Mr. Koskela, that the Agenda be approved as presented with no additions or deletions. Motion carried unanimously.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
MOTION by Mr. Koskela, seconded by Mr. Altenburg, that the Minutes of the May 28, 2014 Board meeting be approved as presented. Motion carried unanimously.
TREASURER’S REPORT FOR MAY, 2014
MOTION by Mr. Koskinen, seconded by Mr. Koskela, that checks numbered 39146 to 39416 for a total of $1,342,857.06, and Combined Cash Investments Report dated May, 2014 totaling $8,368,542.57 is accepted and placed on file. YES: Koskinen, Koskela, Altenburg, Eckloff, Edgerton, Evers, Fyfe, Herrala, Tervo, and Rozich. Motion carried unanimously.
COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC: There was no public present, and therefore, no comments were noted.
CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT: Mr. Rozich, Board Chairperson, presented the Chairperson’s Report.
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2014/2015 County Appropriation Letters – Mr. Rozich stated the 2014/2015 County Appropriation letters were included in the Board packet. The funding request has not changed since 1996.
Committee Assignments – Mr. Rozich stated there are two open positions to fill on the Building Committee and he asked Mr. Altenburg and Mr. Herrala if they are interested in serving on the Building Committee. They agreed. Mr. Rozich stated he is willing to fill the open position on the Corporate Compliance Committee. There is an open position on the Nominating Committee, and Mr. Rozich stated he would fill this opening in a month or two.
NorthCare Governing Board Meeting Update – 6/11/14 – Mr. Rozich stated he attended the NorthCare meeting on June 11, 2014 in Marquette. He feels the group is starting to make some progress and the members are beginning to address some of the issues. Mr. Tervo and Mr. Koskinen both stated the Board Members are starting to respect the decision-making of administration. Mr. Rozich referred the Board Members to the CEO Monthly Report included in the packet.
Vicki Mikkola stated that Mr. Randy Eckloff was recently appointed to the Substance Abuse Advisory Council under the umbrella of the NorthCare Board.
Update on GLRMHA - Mr. Tervo stated the 21st conference of the GLRMHA will be held on September 7, 8, and 9, 2014 in Houghton. The brochures will be mailed out soon and the agenda is full. Just before the conference begins, there is a free tour at 1:30 PM on Sunday, September 7, 2014 of the Rock and Mineral Museum on Michigan Tech’s campus. The conference begins at 5:15 PM on Sunday evening. Some of the speakers and topics on the Agenda include: Liz Knisely and Mike Vizena from Lansing, Doctors Joe and Jan Cools from Marquette, a Special Olympics talk, people from the UPHP, and some mental health related success stories. The conference will be held at the Magnuson Hotel in Houghton.
Mr. Rozich stated we have another vacancy on the Board with Ms. Middleton’s recent resignation. We will need to advertise for a new Board Member, and Mr. Rozich suggested since we serve a number of people from the Calumet area, that it would be nice to get a new Board Member from that area.
DIRECTOR’S REPORT: Ms. Vicki Mikkola, Executive Director, presented the Director’s Report.
Institute
Taryn Mack, Institute Director, presented a history of her employment at Copper Country Mental Health. Ms. Mack stated she was hired in 1988 as a receptionist at the Institute and has held various other positions since then such as Grant Secretary, Grant
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Coordinator, and Institute Director. The Institute opened in 1988 and was funded with money from the U.P. Training Center Grant. In the past, the Institute did the training for all CMH’s in the U.P. and this changed in the early 2000’s. Taryn Mack stated in 2013, the Institute took over the coordination of all training. They now do many of the mandated trainings with a kit that is sent to all supervisors. This saves the agency about $7,500 annually. Additionally, we moved from American Red Cross CPR to American Heart and the cost is considerably less as well. Taryn Mack reviewed the various programs and trainings provided by the Institute throughout the year. The Board Members thanked Taryn Mack for her informative presentation.
Recipient Rights Advisory Committee Meeting Report – 6/23/14
Carol Evers stated the Recipient Rights Advisory Committee met on June 23, 2014 to review Incident Reports, the BTC Report, ORR Semi-Annual Report, viewed a video called “Your Rights When Receiving Mental Health Services in Michigan,” and reviewed six Agency Recipient Rights Policies and Procedures. Carol Evers stated the committee meets four times per year. Andrew Silver, from the Office of Recipient Rights in Lansing, was here on June 10, 2014 to conduct an Appeals Committee training for the Recipient Rights Advisory Committee.
Contracts FY 2014
Vicki Mikkola requested Board approval of a contract renewal with Darin Goke to provide lessons for 2nd and 5th grade students in the Great Explorations program in Baraga, L’Anse, CLK, Dollar Bay, and Lake Linden area schools. There is no change in the rates.
MOTION by Mr. Koskinen, seconded by Mr. Herrala, that the Board approves the contract renewal with Darin Goke to provide lessons to the Great Explorations program as presented and at the rate specified on the Action Item. Motion carried unanimously.
Updates
Telepsychiatry – Vicki Mikkola stated we had our first telepsychiatry sessions with Dr. Balian. It went fairly smoothly as a result of a lot of work that was done quickly and systematically by our staff, led by Cari Raboin and Dr. Morgan. They are working to train Dr. Balian on our electronic medical records, billing, the logistics of the sessions, meeting with our staff, finding out about our culture, and the backgrounds of the consumers he was seeing.
Also some good news, Dr. Lynn Miller who worked for us many years ago, has offered to give us some time in October. He says he can work for us two days a week. At that point, we will be back up to the amount of psychiatric services we had when Dr. Shoup
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was here. We will be negotiating his contract, and Vicki Mikkola stated she will bring it in to the Board for approval.
Union Negotiations – Vicki Mikkola stated we received the initial request from the Union for negotiations. The contract expires on October 1, 2014. Vicki Mikkola stated she would like to engage Bonnie Toskey to do the negotiations because this will be our first time doing it without the HR Director’s assistance. Also when Bonnie Toskey is here, Vicki Mikkola stated she would like to have her do some training with our supervisors. She did training with them several years ago that was found to be very helpful, but obviously, there are different people here now and it would be highly beneficial for them to take advantage of her knowledge and expertise. Mr. Rozich asked for volunteers for the Negotiating Committee and Albert Koskela volunteered and Jim Fyfe stated he would assist if no one else volunteered.
Budget
Vicki Mikkola stated there is not much good news with the budget. Susan Serafini will give us more detail on this current year with the Finance Committee Meeting Report; there are still unknowns even for this year. As for next year, the advocacy efforts fell on deaf ears. The latest information we have is that the budget went to the governor with $97 million in the General Fund (non-Medicaid line) for CMH. The Association estimated we need $140 million and Lynda Zeller thought that about $104 million was needed. Vicki Mikkola stated it looks like we will need to continue our waiting list into next year. We’ve kept it below 50 people so far, but with a potential 60% cut next year, and with the potential of more people requesting services when the Dual Eligible project starts, the waiting list may increase.
Advocacy for the Public Sector
Vicki Mikkola stated on June 8, the UP CMH Directors and Bill Slavin met with our legislators, Jim Haveman and Lynda Zeller from MDCH, Karla Ruest, Governmental Affairs Advisor, and Sue Moran, Public Health Director. Vicki Mikkola stated they met with the CMH Directors at 3:00 PM, and they had spent the other part of the day with UPHP and the Health Department representatives. This meeting was a follow-up to the meeting the Directors had with the legislators on April 8. The focus of this follow-up meeting was a frank discussion of the General Fund shortfall and the Directors explained the impact of the shortfall on each of our agencies. Mr. Haveman turned most of the discussion over to Lynda Zeller, and she stressed the importance of maximizing Medicare and other resources. They also reiterated that Healthy Michigan was not intended to fully fund GF and that CMHs will become more and more reliant on Medicaid. Ms. Zeller said that if CMHs find themselves not being able to fulfill their statutory responsibilities, MDCH will be happy to come in to audit their books to see exactly where and how GF is being used.
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At the statewide Director’s Forum on June 10, 2014, Liz Knisely led a discussion on the future roles of CMHs as providers and PIHPs as “health plans.” She said that CMHs will become more and more Medicaid providers and that we will look different than we do now; that we need to find efficiencies and consistencies within the regions. Her presentation was not comforting and after she left, there was a strong feeling that CMHs need to do something proactively to preserve the public system as the safety net.
Vicki Mikkola stated Bob Sheehan, Director of Clinton, Eaton & Ingham Counties CMH, provided a plan that turned into a motion that was passed at the June 10, 2014 MACMHB Director’s Forum. It is related to the Advocacy for the Public System Initiative. Since this motion passed, Sheehan has talked to the National Association and they don’t have anything readily usable. It looks like they are turning towards using the Michigan League for Public Policy to develop one white paper instead of two. This is going to cost money and the Association has been charged with levying a “special assessment” or fee or will make a call for voluntary contributions to support these efforts. Vicki Mikkola requested support and encouragement of these efforts, without committing any money at this point because we do not know whether it is going to be an “assessment” or voluntary and we do not know how much it will be.
MOTION by Mr. Tervo, seconded by Mr. Herrala,, that the Board supports Bob Sheehan’s motion that was passed at the June 10, 2014 Director’s Forum in Lansing. Motion carried unanimously.
Mr. Tervo encouraged the Board Members to send a check to the MACMHB’s PAC Committee for the suggested amount of one Board meeting per diem. The PAC helps to support policy initiatives that improve mental health services, and candidates who are supportive of MACMHB efforts.
FINANCE DIRECTOR’S REPORT FOR MAY, 2014: Susan Serafini, Finance Director, presented the Finance Director’s Report for May, 2014.
Susan Serafini reviewed the financial statements through May, 2014. There was an increase of $160,000 in cash in May versus April, 2014, due mainly to NorthCare settling with us for an additional $139,000. The overall Total Net Income is about $136,000 and it was about $207,000 in April, 2014. This is a $71,000 decrease attributed mostly to the General Fund. The General Fund Net Income is reported at about $118,000 versus about $194,000 for April, 2014, a decrease of $77,000. The Equipment Fund has a small deficit but this is a timing issue. Our goal with the Internal Service funds is to finish the year as close to breakeven as possible. Susan Serafini noted that we have a healthy reserve fund but three month’s expenses are approximately just under $4 million dollars so this is needed. The General Fund Income Statement revenues are 1% over budget and we are losing ground slowly. At the end of March we were 1 ¾% over budget. Expenses are slightly over budget and our expenses in May increased over April. This was due to the $50,000 local share for
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Medicaid draw down and increase in State facility expense. Susan Serafini reviewed the Revenues and Expenditures by funding source as of May 31, 2014. We are approximately $86,000 underspent in Medicaid dollars and a little underspent in Healthy Michigan as well. We have over spent in General Fund, due to the MDCH budget cuts.
FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT – 6/25/14: Susan Serafini, reviewed the Finance Committee Meeting Report for June 25, 2014.
The Finance Committee met this evening to review the FY 2014 revised budget. Susan Serafini stated with the General Fund cuts, the elimination of the Adult Benefit Waiver dollars and Healthy Michigan dollars being lower than expected, we may need to use about $167,000 of the Reserve Funds to balance the budget. Discussion followed regarding the waiting list and there are 48 currently on our list. This will continue and there continues to be budgetary uncertainties. It appears we will be facing a large cut in General Fund dollars in FY 2015 as well. Susan Serafini stated she will be bringing in a final Budget to the Board for approval in September.