COLORADO SPRINGS — Helping the city's homeless population has been a priority in Colorado Springs for years, and local organizations and providers often step in to meet the needs of the most vulnerable.
One of those needs includes sober living programs, or programs where people experiencing homelessness and needing help with substance abuse treatment can get into a program with a voucher to get the care they need.
Come July 1st, a change is happening as to how funds for programs like sober living vouchers get distributed and it's causing some uncertainty on how much money will be allocated and where.
"The question mark on the table is whether or not the funds will be cut from the federal government and therefore impact communities," Katie Blickenderfer, Chief Clinical Officer at Diversus Health in Colorado Springs said, "it definitely weighs on providers in this community to figure out how we're going to continue to do what we do."
The concerns are two-fold: uncertainty with federal funds and an administrative change happening at the beginning of the state's fiscal year in July.
Diversus Health is currently a provider of services in Colorado Springs and a Managed Service Organization (MSO) for the Colorado Behavioral Health Administration (BHA). MSO serve as the intermediary to allocate funding from the state and federal government to providers for programs like sober living and other substance abuse programs. Come July 1st, it's no longer going to be the MSO for the region, it's being transitioned to Signal Behavioral Health Network.
The state is moving to a different regional model as part of the directives the Behavioral Health Task Force made years ago. The model is aimed to help "safety net" providers, those who help people who are underinsured or not insured at all.
"The intent is for it to be seamless with providers that, instead of [the providers] re-contracting with us, their contracts will be with Signal Behavioral Health. The challenge is whether or not the funding will exist like it has been." Blickenderfer said.
When it comes to whether or not services will be going away, Blickenderfer said they don't know at this time.
"I feel way more confident about the transition of the services or the, oversight of the services going from Diversus health to Signal than I do about the funding being available like it has been," Blickenderfer said.
Signal Behavioral Health Network CEO Daniel Darting said it intends to keep allocating funds to most if not all of the organizations in the Pikes Peak region offering crisis services, substance use disorder treatment, and recovery and mental health services. Contracts are not all finalized for the programs Signal will be allocating funding to.
"I think the budget challenges are not going to go away anytime soon, so I suppose, yes, it's correct to say that there is risk," Darting said.
As of now, there are not active cuts happening at the federal level for these programs, Darting said. Federal dollars are running out from covid-era relief programs like the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
"So there's an indirect relationship, but it's not an arbitrary reduction of funding or a decision-based reduction of funding or changes of that kind that we're aware of," Darting said.
The BHA said there more details will be released in the coming weeks on what the transition looks like for the general public. The plan is to make a streamlined process where patients can easily get connected to the services needed in their communities.
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