February 14, 2005

To Members of the North Carolina Commission for MH/DD/SA:

NAMI North Carolina joins the Governor’s Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities and a host of other statewide advocacy groups in support of the opinion that one of the responsibilities of the NC Commission for MH/DD/SAS is the adoption of rules which may establish policy that safeguards the rights of all North Carolinians eligible for services through the Division.  The role of the Commission in statute is explicit as to the protection and promotion of consumer rights.

It is in reference to this responsibility that we urge you to address a serious inequity that exists in the current system, due to the difference in accountability for the care and treatment of Medicaid compared to non-Medicaid clients.  Our current system provides a state level complaint and appeals process only for clients in state facilities, other residential settings accountable to the Division of Facility Services, or clients in the community whose services are federally or state funded through Medicaid.  This is inequitable and allows a system in which two clients, receiving the same service from the same facility, may have different rights of appeal or indeed no rights of appeal depending on who pays the bill.  Moreover, inequity is inherent in a system that provides a statewide complaint and appeals process in area authorities and county programs, as well as with private providers, but excludes from that process those clients being served in the community who are not federally or state funded. 

The promise of mental health reform in North Carolina includes empowering clients and their families with access to appropriate services and with choice.  Inherent in that promise is a right to appeal.  A universal complaint and appeals process is the safeguard to ensure that non-Medicaid clients have equal access to a uniform process of state level review, allowing all clients receiving treatment the right to challenge the appropriateness of that treatment.

We urge you as individuals and as a collective body to examine the existing mechanisms for accountability and consider that a complaint and appeals process with state level review is justified based on fairness, common sense, and the promise of mental health reform.  We ask that you fully support the rights of all consumers eligible for services through the Division, not just those whose care is funded by Medicaid.  

Sincerely,  

Beth Garriss Hardy, Ph.D.
President
NAMI North Carolina Board of Directors 

C:         Governor Mike Easley
            Secretary Carmen Hooker Odom
            Legislative Oversight Committee Members
            Mike Moseley, Director, Division of MH/DD/SAS
            Coalition 2001 & Coalition for Persons Disabled by Mental Illness