Lyon County commissioners received an annual report from Bill Persinger, executive director of the Mental Health Center of East Central Kansas, during Wednesday’s study session.
Persinger said the center serves clients in Chase, Coffey, Greenwood, Lyon, Morris, Osage and Wabaunsee Counties and operates on a $9.2 million budget.
Persinger provided commissioners with a handout that included several statistics, including admissions history. Admissions in Lyon County in 2004 were 796. This number rose to 1,068 by 2008. Persinger also talked about admission rates per 1,000 population. In Lyon County, that number is about 30.
The center served 3,988 (active cases) clients in state fiscal year 2008. This represents 136,202 hours in 2008. Of these, 46 percent of services were psychosocial rehabilitation (day treatment); case management and individual psychotherapy.
Persinger also talked about the breakdown in fee sources. About 47 percent of clients are private pay, which means those individuals generally have no insurance and are on a sliding fee. The center only brings in about $100,000 in those fees. If the fees were collected in full it would bring in about $2 million to $3 million. About 28 percent of clients use Medicaid/Healthwave/SED Waiver; 15 percent use commercial insurance and EAP; 6 percent use Medicare; and 4 percent fall into the other category of payment.
In other business, commissioners heard a department update from Gary Post, Lyon County appraiser. Post said sales data for Lyon County is open to the public at www.lyoncounty.org. The user name is SALES and the password is SALES. The site will remain open for the month of March for homeowners to review sales in their area to determine if they need an informal meeting with the appraiser. Informal meetings with property owners will start in mid-March and continue until mid-April, Post said.
“We are planning information hearings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week,” Post said.
cloud (anonymous) says...
We are fortunate to have the Mental Health Center in Emporia.
February 26, 2009 at 2:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Happiness09 (anonymous) says...
cloud: If you think we are so fortunate to have the Mental Health Center I would encourage you to call there and make an appointment to see what you have to go through. God forbid you should ever need their emergency services. You'll most likely be dead before you get any help.
February 27, 2009 at 1:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )