BRUNSWICK

Three-term state Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, DBrunswick, is accusing the LePage administration of misleading lawmakers in the wake of a federal funding cut that’s jeopardized care for the state’s mentally ill.

Gerzofsky — a longtime member and current chairman of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Commitee — recently was appointed by Senate President Justin Alfond to lead the new Forensic Mental Health Services Oversight Committee.

The nine-member committee was formed to remedy systemic problems in the way the state manages care of mentally troubled patients. Its first meeting is scheduled for Nov. 12 in Augusta.

The state learned earlier this month the Riverview Psychiatric Facility in Augusta would lose $20 million in federal funding due to poor performance and lack of compliance with federal guidelines.

Concerns about patient care in state-run facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding are not new. However, Gerzofsky said attempts to remedy the problem before it reached “a crisis level” were met with inaction and obstruction by Gov. Paul LePage.

“The Legislature was kept in the dark by the governor’s administration, and we don’t like being misled,” Gerzofsky told The Times Record in September.

Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services, which administers funding and supervision to state hospitals, received warnings of its non-compliance in March and May from the Federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. But an unannounced visit by the oversight body in mid- September led to funding termination.

According to several reports released by the centers in the wake of the funding revocation, reasons for failing to meet required guidelines included insufficient and unqualified staffing levels, worker safety, and patient treatment.

Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew said she will appeal the decision.

Gerzofsky, too, has a habit of showing up at facilities unannounced to get an unvarnished look at conditions in which patients are being treated; the most recent was a trip to the state prison in Warren on Sept. 12 with Alfond.

Likewise, he also has a problem with using penal facilities to treat patients with mental or psychiatric issues but no criminal history. However, during a special legislative session in August, lawmakers passed emergency measure LD 1515 to temporarily relieve overcrowding at Riverview by moving some of the more volatile patients to a treatment facility at the state prison in Warren.

“Riverview is a hospital, not a prison,” Gerzofsky told The Times Record shortly before the Sept. 12 visit. “It cannot be made secure enough to hold violent patients. This is a stop-gap (measure) that takes us until June. It’ll give us time to figure out how to deal with violent patients.”

jtleonard@timesrecord.com

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