Is Colorado’s Mental Health Care Safety Net System Reforming or Rebranding?

More whistleblowers have come forward to call out Mind Springs Mental Health for falsifying patient forms. Past and current Mind Springs employees told Susan Greene with Colorado News Collaborative (COLab) that Mind Springs leadership regularly asked administrative staff to fill out official patient reports with bogus diagnoses and exaggerated rates of improvement.

Mind Springs is one of 17 mental health care safety net providers across the state that receive nearly $437 million in tax dollars. This recent development comes in response to a report Greene published in December that documented widespread prescription fraud, providers that refused to treat the most vulnerable patients, and a culture of secrecy throughout the 17 state mental health providers.

In response to her reporting, the state voted to create a new agency to oversee these providers. They say the new Behavioral Health Administration will fix the provider monopolies and culture of secrecy that leaves so many Colorado communities without the mental health care support they need.

KGNU’s Alexis Kenyon spoke with Greene about her most recent reporting, the new oversight, and whether the government’s response is enough to fix a system that, for decades, has failed the most vulnerable Coloradans.

 

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    Is Colorado’s Mental Health Care Safety Net System Reforming or Rebranding? Alexis Kenyon

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Alexis Kenyon

Alexis Kenyon is a radio reporter with more than 15 years of experience creating compelling, sound-rich radio stories for news outlets across the country.
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