A board member of Douglas County’s designated mental health services provider, the Community Health Alliance, has filed a legal complaint against the alliance’s administration and the county’s chief addictions services provider, ADAPT, accusing the defendants of improperly transferring the alliance’s $5 million in assets to ADAPT, which could effectively force the Roseburg-based Community Health Alliance to close.
Kevin Campbell, a board member and the executive director of Greater Oregon Behavioral Health, Inc., filed the complaint last week on behalf of the Community Health Alliance, arguing that the decision to give away the organization’s assets to ADAPT, a competitor, were made in a rushed fashion without enough notice of the meetings and not allowing all directors, such as Campbell, to participate, violating the organization’s bylaws.
“CHA’s board of directors considered that proposal on short notice in an electronic special meeting at which Plaintiff was not permitted to participate or was held without the required notice to Plaintiff, with little or no investigation or analysis, without significant information as to ADAPT’s finances, with limited legal assistance, and without significant consideration of alternatives,” reads the complaint, filed in Douglas County Circuit Court on Dec. 29.
The complaint accuses some of the board of acting to promote their own self-interest and acting against the interest of the alliance, which would be left to wind up its affairs only with the assets that ADAPT does not want, at significant expense to the remaining organization.
The decision had been made over Campbell’s expressed written objection, and his complaint states that ADAPT interfered with the Community Health Alliance’s business by making implied and express threats to terminate contracts.
The Community Health Alliance had formed as a nonprofit agency in March 2014 to provide mental health services in Douglas County after the county gave up direct delivery of these services in the county health department. The county has been struggling financially as a result of the decline in federal timber royalties and the loss of a subsequent subsidy program the federal government made in lieu of timber payments.
The complaint asks for an injunction stopping the gift of the alliance’s assets to ADAPT, a negation of the board’s decision and compensation for attorney’s fees.
Campbell’s attorney, Henry O’Keeffe, declined to provide to add any additional information beyond the legal filing. “It is our policy not to comment on any pending litigation.”
ADAPT director Greg Brigham and Douglas County Commissioner Tim Freeman could not be reached for comment by press time.
Chris can be reached at [email protected].
Community Health Alliance was formed officially as a 501(c)(3) non profit in 2009 (guidestar) . According to the former county health department director, she and others (who later made up the CCO UHA board)created the group called the Community Health Alliance (CHA), when changes in how Medicaid was going to be organized and paid for was changing at the state level.
They originally anticipated it becoming the Coordianted Care Orgainization (CCO) here in Douglas County. However there were no assets. So in order for them to be a CCO, the "community partners" involved would have to capitalize the amount the state would require of CCOs. Here that would mean the doctors group DCIPA and the hospital Mercy would have to give money to CHA to allow it to apply to be the CCO. Money they could not get back, particulalry DCIPA which is a private for profit doctors group.
As a non-profit CHA could not give back any money to DCIPA. So it would have to be an outright donation to the new non-profit group. They did not want to do this, so they created the for profit division of DCIPA called Umpqua Health Alliance (UHA)* and it became the CCO. Now money could be recouped if necessary.
So CHA layed dormant for basically a couple of years. It was revitalized to become the mental health provider when Douglas County got out of the business.
*DCIPA has since transfered the CCO UHA to Architrave, which is their partnership with Mercy Medical Center (the Catholic Health Inittive owned charity hospital in Dougals County).
By the way, according to the same county adminstrator, who was repsonsible for the mental health services budget, mental health paid for itself. It was not operated out of general fund or timber revenue. So whatever the reason the county commissioners decided to get out of the mental health business, it was not because of our county budget issues.
Betsy Cunningham