Here's what we know about the plan to fix Eleanor Slater Hospital
Providence JournalNov 23, 2021
PROVIDENCE —
Announced Tuesday, the "relicensing" decision is a key part of Gov.
Spread across two campuses in
Issues as Eleanor Slater: Last of
But a statement issued by the McKee administration said:
"Benton will continue to operate as a secure facility, serving patients who are involved in the criminal justice system, while Eleanor Slater will continue to serve patients with longer-term medical and psychiatric conditions."
The decision to sever the psychiatric wing from the rest of the hospital is aimed, at least in part, at ending a years-long dispute over
It's a complicated problem that stems from a prohibition in federal law against payment of Medicaid dollars to hospitals where more than half of the patients are classified as psychiatric.
And that has led to allegations that administrators of the state hospital illegally manipulated data on the patient mix to keep the federal dollars flowing. It also led the state to suspend Medicaid billing for close to two years, after insiders blew the whistle.
In his resignation letter earlier this year, the hospital's chief medical officer,
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The move to create a standalone
And it addresses the math problem: by removing the psychiatric patients at Benton -who, in most cases, are not eligible for Medicaid reimbursement now - from the
It is also one of the recommendations that state Health and Human Services Secretary Womazetta Jones made in a report to the governor last June.
"We knew that it was important for BHDDH [the
The logistics:
The state agency that runs the hospital is preparing a "certificate of need application'' for relicensing the Benton building as a psychiatric hospital, for filing with the
"Once all steps of the approval process are complete, Benton will operate under a separate license, with Eleanor Slater still accepting some forensic patients, as needed, depending on the number of court-remanded patients," according to a statement from BHDDH.
"This is an important step for
"We know that
"By doing this, we provide the best-possible care to patients while also being fiscally responsible to the taxpayers."
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But it is not the only new operating license the state is seeking.
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