First, Do No Harm

After taking a few deep, calming breaths and appointing a two-member oversight committee, the Ventura County Board of Supervisors is ready to reexamine its ill-fated merger of the county’s mental health and welfare services bureaucracies.

We urge them to look long and hard before taking further actions that might diminish medical care for people with mental illnesses, or imperil the county’s chances of being reimbursed for the cost of such care.

The board voted 3 to 2 in April to merge the Behavioral Health Department and Public Social Services Agency into one superagency called the Human Services Agency, despite warnings from legal experts about the huge financial risks. The supervisors had held only one public hearing on the matter--on the day of the vote--and each speaker was limited to one minute. Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester had advised taking more time to study the issue. Then in November, just as consultants hired by the county had predicted, the federal government warned the county that the merger violated Medicare and Medicaid billing rules. Fearing the county could lose as much as $15 million in medical reimbursements, the supervisors voted Dec. 22 to dismantle the superagency.

Last week the board gave Supervisors Kathy Long and Judy Mikels the task of determining which parts of the county’s mental health and welfare services departments could be operated jointly without losing federal funding. Both supervisors believe that parts of the merged agency are beneficial and would not threaten federal funding.

We agree that some problems facing the mentally ill--such as housing, job training and transportation, among others--are not theirs alone. We support careful, fully discussed efforts to find ways to deliver those services more efficiently to those with and without mental afflictions.

But we continue believe that this merger was pushed through hastily and without enough public discussion. May this new effort correct that flaw.