This story will be updated with Oregon Health Authority comment.
The Oregon Health Authority’s system that determines whether vulnerable Oregonians receive mental health care has widespread “failures” that hurt the people who need care, an internal audit found.
Agency officials started its work on the audit after a whistleblower within the agency contacted the Oregon Secretary of State’s hotline for reporting waste and fraud in government in March. That employee, whose name is redacted, reported concerns about possible financial mismanagement and poor decisions about how much care Oregonians should receive, the Capital Chronicle reported.
The health authority authority on Monday released a copy of the audit to the Capital Chronicle in response to a public records request. Auditors found a “fragmented, poorly monitored” system that determines how much care people in the behavioral health system should receive – and who is eligible.
The outcome: Some people had their care arbitrarily reduced, while others bunked in secure residential facilities they did not medically qualify for, despite the state’s shortage of behavioral health services….
