Larimer County’s mental health center lays off 75 people, blames rise in uninsured and Medicaid reform

It’s hardly surprising that safety-net mental health centers are feeling the loss of Medicaid coverage for 600,000 Coloradans in the span of about a year, said Vincent Atchity, president and CEO of Mental Health Colorado.

“It’s an earthquake that takes a segment out of a highway,” he said. “It’s a crisis for sure.”

Atchity, who advocated for payment reform and more transparency in public spending on community mental health centers, said it’s likely there is “some seismic shifting that occurs when a system is flipping itself as much as this.”

But it’s unclear this early on in the transformation why some mental health centers are “complaining vociferously” about the new payment system while “others are shrugging their shoulders.”