Commissioners hear from Eastpointe MCO

By Erin Smith

The Bladen County Board of Commissioners heard an update from Eastpointe MCO Chairman Sarah Stroud and Chief of External Operations Victoria Jackson. Stroud announced a pilot for Bladen County that involves a handout which was prepared by Eastpointe MCO staff.

The handout was designed to be given to different agencies in Bladen County to be used as a resource. The front of the handout has the telephone number and location of Eastpointe’s Bladen County walk-in center which is located at 16526 NC Highway 87West in Tar Heel. It also contains Eastpointe’s Call Center number which is 1-800-913-6109.

On the back of the handout, there is a listing of all 14 providers located in Bladen County along with their addresses and contact information.

The handout also has information for how to take a Mental Health screening either online or by visiting the Eastpointe Kiosk located in the Bladen County Health Department.

“This is a kind of pilot. We’ve not done this (handout) for any of our other counties but we are really excited about it. We think it can be used for communication throughout the county,” said Stroud.

Stroud said currently, in Bladen County, Eastpointe MCO has 12 agencies at 14 different sites. There is one licensed independent practitioner and the hospital.

“Our network consists of 340 providers,” said Stroud.

Stroud began her presentation with a brief overview of Eastpointe’s budget. She told the board that for fiscal year 2018 Eastpointe has 278 employees and, of those, 12 employees reside in Bladen County.

The budget is $317 million with Medicaid making up $276.9 million of that total. Eastpointe has a fund balance of $129 million and, of that, only $23.7 million is designated as unassigned meaning the remaining fund balance is designated for various purposes as required by law.

Stroud told the Commissioners that Bladen County has a Medicaid population of 9,500 and of the total area serviced by Eastpointe MCO the total Medicaid population served was 221,000. In fiscal year 2017, Eastpointe MCO paid $8.5 million in services for Bladen County. This year, Eastpointe has paid $8.2 million in services for Bladen County at the end of June. Stroud said Eastpointe is on track to pay more claims this year than in 2017.

Bladen County contributes $52,725 and that is divided between two providers, according to Stroud. One provider offers adult developmental vocational programming and the other provider offers psychiatric support for the hospital.

So far this year, 1158 people with Medicaid have received services in Bladen County and 246 members received services who were indigent. Storud said the Eastpointe Call Center handled 1,190 calls.

She also told the board that Eastpointe MCO is exceeding state benchmarks.

“We are held to a number of standards by the State,” said Stroud.

For example, the Call Center is required by the State to answer calls within 30 seconds of their being received. The State requirement is 95 percent of calls answered. Eastpointe MCO answered 99 percent of the calls received.

Another requirement is to have claims processed within 30 days. The State requirement is 90 percent while Eastpointe MCO has achieved 99 percent.

In other business:

*Bladen County Emergency Management Director Bradley Kinlaw told the Commissioners that Bladen County has opened a recovery application center at the Bladen County Training Center at White Lake for those who suffered damage from Hurricane Matthew. Anyone who has damage from Hurricane Matthew can call 2-1-1 to schedule an appointment. Kinlaw some of the other Hurricane Matthew-related programs are moving rapidly now.

*Commissioner Charles Ray Peterson told the board he has concerns with the county’s personnel policy. Commissioner Peterson said the policy needs to be reviewed and updated and he would like to see department heads, employees and Commissioners have input. He added department heads need to able to deal with discipline problems. Commissioner Ophelia Munn-Goins added she would like to see a review of the policy as it pertains to hiring practices.

*The board heard from Bladen County Finance Director Lisa Coleman regarding options for trackng time and attendance of County employees. She told the board she had met with four different companies –ADP, Paychex, Executive and Cronos. ADP made a bid of $33,000, Executive entered a bid of $67,000, Cronois made a bid of $29,000 and Paychex entered a bid of $20,800. She recommended the bid from Paychex for $20,800. Commissioner Peterson noted Bladen County Sheriff Jim McVicker expressed concerns about his staff signing on and off the system. It was requested to have a representative with Paychex to come and conduct a demonstration for the board.

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