Manchin Urged to Sign Mental Health Bill

Advocates of increased state payments to West Virginia's behavioral health centers have appealed to The New York Times, which reports on their support of a successful session bill "that would add $6 million in financing to what they say is a deteriorating system of care."

The Associated Press and others earlier reported on the legislation, and the resulting pushback from Gov. Joe Manchin's Department of Health and Human Resources. A DHHR official took the rate step of writing lawmakers on the eve of the bill's passage to argue against it.

The Times reports that DHHR "objects to a provision in the bill that would result in most of the money going to 13 privately run regional mental health centers in the state."

“What it amounts to is an earmark,” agency spokesman John Law told the newspaper. “I think everybody agrees we need to increase our rates... It’s just a matter of finding the money and the way to do it.”

The bill arrives at Manchin's desk "in the face of recent reports that characterized West Virginia’s system for treating the mentally ill as one of the worst in the country," the article said.

Update: Others with related coverage include the News and Sentinel of Parkersburg and the Herald-Dispatch of Huntington.