A Las Vegas clinic under the Henderson, Nev.-based WestCare umbrella is threatening to close due to disagreements over funding, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
Community Triage Center, one of WestCare's clinics that operate across 19 states and three countries, is the only remaining clinic for behavioral health and substance use disorder patients in Las Vegas. If the clinic closes by the end of May, as WestCare indicated, state hospitals and facilities like Las Vegas-based University Medical Center would see an influx of behavioral health patients in their ladened emergency rooms.
This situation is exactly what the WestCare clinic aimed to resolve under a 2002 interlocal agreement between southern Nevada governments and hospitals. Under the agreement, the entities help fund services at Community Triage Center's 50-bed facility to avoid overcrowded ERs.
However, Community Triage Center now faces a $6 million deficit and points its finger at the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, the city of Las Vegas, other government entities, and Las Vegas-area hospitals for failing to sufficiently pay the clinic under their agreement. The clinic claims the entities owe $2.8 million in payments for the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years, and have instead made partial payments and some in-kind services.
WestCare spokesperson Bob Vickrey told the Las Vegas Review-Journal the dispute hinges on a disagreement between the funders and WestCare over how much the clinic should receive in Medicaid reimbursement. A recent audit found the clinic owes $1 million-plus in services that were covered by Medicaid and then paid for by the interlocal agreement. While Mr. Vickrey declined to comment on the $655,000 in credit WestCare offered the funders in response to the audit, he said the number "paled in comparison" to the $6 million deficit the clinic incurred due to inadequate funding.
State and county representatives argue they have made sufficient payments under the interlocal agreement, and that the inconsistencies stem from poor record keeping on WestCare's behalf, as well as "double dipping" in Medicaid and interlocal agreement payments for the same service, according to the report.