Tagged: mecklink

The state and Mecklenburg County are once again at odds over who should control hundreds of millions of dollars of Medicaid funds for mental health services.

It’s been a rollercoaster month for MeckLINK. That’s the county mental health service agency, which has been preparing for two years and hired nearly 150 workers to take over more than $200 million in Medicaid funds for mental health, substance abuse, and disability services. Since December 31st, MeckLINK has lost the job--when the state found it would not be ready to take over--appealed that decision, lost the appeal, threatened to sue, and then negotiated an extension to prove it can be ready by March 1st.

  Mecklenburg County will have another chance to prove it’s ready to take over more than $200 million in Medicaid funds for mental health services.

The county spent the last two years and $3 million  preparing its agency MeckLINK to handle mental health, substance abuse, and disability services, as part of a statewide change to how Medicaid funds for those services are dispersed. 

Mecklenburg County will continue its fight to reinstate its mental health service agency, MeckLINK, as the overseer of hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid funds. In a last ditch effort, county commissioners unanimously voted to take their case to court.

The new Secretary of Health and Human Services has denied Mecklenburg County’s request to reinstate MeckLINK as the area’s manager of hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid funds.