February Board Minutes of Western Highlands Network as Pertaining to Piedmont Behavioral Health (PBH) Who Created Medicaid Waiver

I woke up this morning and Henry Thoreau and Mose Allyson were beckoning to me. After sitting in that WHN LME Board meeting (part of it; I was too tired of everything there to stay to the part where they talked about the "Medicaid Waiver" associated w/ PBH), I had a troubled sleep. Its as if part of my unconscious was poking me, trying to say?....

Naw, that doesn't have anything to do with this blog flipping up on the first internet page most everytime I put "WHN LME" in the title.......

I put Mose on immediately and in particular one side of the record: "If You Only Knew." I looked the lyrics up on the web.

The first tragic thing was that everything on the web seemed to indicated that Van Morrison wrote it which is not true according to the sleeve of the record----so there's terrible irony in realizing that Mose knew even that he would not be credited with his song-writing of a song that tries to tip off the hip to the fact that they will forever be trying to get the real story (Mose is down there on page 1 of the web, however...just not at the top):

"....If you only knew all the dealing
That goes on in back of the store.
If you only knew how that one that's
Got a lot can't wait to get more.
I wouldn't want to cramp your style
But if you want to make it all worthwhile.
You have to have your own breakthrough.
If you only knew.

If you only knew what could happen to
A man for telling the truth.
If you only knew all the scruples
That go down in gin and vermouth.
I wouldn't want to steer you wrong
But if you want to sing your own song.
Your gonna have to lose a few.
If you only knew."

So, speaking of all the dealing that unfortunately goes on at the back of the store, I looked at the February 3, 2012 WHN Board minutes (odd: there's no WHN Board minutes online after November, 2011) , specifically, the Chief Executive Officer Report. It clandestinely states (the person who creates the minutes got some training on tip-toeing around red flag issues): AHEM: The Edict:announcing horns please:

"......It has been decided by the State that PBH will take over two (2) LME's which will add another ) seven to eight (7-8) counties to their catchment area. (Why the quibbling here? There are exactly 8---no more, no less----counties associated with WHN LME). Mr. Carder was asked to be a part of the Oversight Committee on February 14, and he will let the Board know how it went at the next meeting. (Ohhhhhhh...)

Mr. Carder then addressed the issue of the PBH Non-Disclosure agreement. He wanted to ensure that people hav ea clear understand (sic) of why WHN is requiring people to sign that agreement. The process was created AFTER (bold italics in original) the implementation of the PBH Waiver five years ago, which is why PBH did not require their providers, community advisory council members, etc (I am reminded of Yule Brenner in the musical saying cavalierly: etcetera, etcetera, etcetera) to sign one. He took questions from the Board and other members of the public who were at the meeting. ..."

Ok, listen up all you etceteras:

I have no idea what that last paragraph just said and I can only assume that we're hiding things in this kind of talk. You may ask---- actually, I ask: just what is this PBH Non-Disclosure Agreement.

Who, besides the etceteras, have to sign it? Do client/ consumers sign it? Do providers offering current Medicaid services sign it? Do private companies sign it? Remember: the UNC Chapel Hill attorney stating that this waiver was going to shred the public documents

So, I search-engined "Piedmont Behavioral Health Non-Disclosure Agreement."

That was no help: only Madame Defarge posts show up. That and David Cornwall's NC Hope postings.

The language by, assumeably, Mr. Carder, is a carbon copy of David Cornwall's report (see: http://ncmentalhope.org/commentary/2011/compliance/) on PBH fooh-foohing the court system about why they did not provide treatment for a developmentally disabled person over there in eastern NC:

"....On April 5, PBH filed an objection that the court lacked jurisdiction since the issue of services was BEFORE (my caps) the state’s Office of Adminstrative Hearings. It further noted that Hummel was out of the country, that Baker was no longer employed by PBH, that the agency had no clincical director, and that there were no treating psychiatrists familiar with the case on PBH staff."

Not to worry, Mr. Carder of WHN LME: we understand that the signatures of the etceteras does not matter because the 'process was created AFTER the implementation of the PBH Waiver five years ago...."

Right.

In fact, the only information I can turn up on the web (I begin to see why the WHN LME attorney kept trying to shut me up yesterday) is associated with me copying what Mr. Carder (boy, I bet he regrets this) handed out at the WHN LME board meeting last June which is a statement from the UNC Chapel Hill professor re: just how the Non disclosure agreement would shred the public records law. And I posted it to David Cornwall's NC Hope pages and here it is, as well as in Defarge (otherwise, it does not exist):

"My understanding is that the information PBH intends to share with other LME’s includes written (in paper or electronic form) policies and procedures, manuals, forms, contracts, privileging and credentialing tools, provider standards, provider appeal processes and forms, consumer appeal process and forms, etc. The North Carolina Public Records Act permits public access to all public records in an agency’s possession unles the agency or the record is specifically exempts from the statute. (I will presume, here, that no one takes the view that PBH is not a governmental agency subject tot he public records statute. If I am wrong on this point, and need to address this qustion, please let me know). I have identified no provision of state law that explicitly exempts the PBH records at issue here from public access under the public records law. The public records act exemption for trade secrets does not apply, as that exemption applies to a trade secret that is the property of a private person."

What do you bet that if I employ the public records law to get my records associated with applying as a provider to WHN LME that they will utilize this Non-Disclosure Agreement to try and block me?

I'm dying to find out.