AUGUSTA, Maine — A legislative committee unanimously endorsed a bill on Wednesday that would safeguard Mainers with mental illnesses from cuts to services under a rule change from Gov. Paul LePage’s administration.
The rule changes will largely limit support services under Section 17 of MaineCare rules to those with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, moving an estimated 8,000 Mainers with conditions including anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder to other programs.
Clients were blindsided by March letters from the state saying that they “may or may not continue to get services” after the changes, leading to a rarely used maneuver by advocates to petition the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee to review the rules.
On Wednesday, the committee endorsed a bill giving affected people 120 days to transition to other services, allowing people with mental illness who now get rent assistance to continue receiving it and allowing the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to grant 90-day waivers to people who can’t get services under other sections of MaineCare through June 2017.
Mary Lou Dyer, director of the Maine Association of Community Service Providers, called the committee’s bill “a reasonable compromise” meeting “the department’s needs of wanting to have people properly slotted for services” and alleviating “people’s worry that they would be left without services in very serious, dangerous situations.”
At a Friday public hearing, more than 300 people opposed the changes, with some saying it could force them to lose case management and living skills services.
The department argued that the program should reserve Section 17 for those with “serious, persistent mental illness” and that use of the program by those with “mild and moderate” mental illnesses would be well-suited for services under other parts of the law.
This was the second time the petition procedure has been used this year: The LePage administration withdrew proposed changes to services for people with autism and other developmental disabilities after other concerns around transparency.
But the committee worked with the LePage administration on the Section 17 bill, which now goes to the full Legislature for consideration.