The Meadows will close its Bellefonte outpatient clinic, crisis services
Universal Community Behavioral Health, the health system that runs The Meadows Psychiatric Center and Can Help, plans to close its Bellefonte outpatient clinic and all crisis intervention services this February.
David Grabowski, chief executive officer of The Meadows, confirmed in an email that UCBH is closing its outpatient behavioral health services at 190 Match Factory Place in Bellefonte and “the specific Crisis Intervention Services located across several Pennsylvania counties” on Feb. 1, 2020.
Both The Meadows’ Crisis Assessment and Referral Center and Centre County Can Help — a 24-hour mobile crisis service — will close. In addition to Can Help, UCBH will close all crisis intervention services in Bedford, Somerset, Cambria, Clearfield, Jefferson, Juniata, Mifflin, Huntingdon and Schuykill counties. Centre County Human Services Administrator Natalie Corman said crisis intervention services will be provided by new providers, which will be announced next week.
Some employees were notified of the Bellefonte clinic’s closure and discontinuation of crisis intervention services in late November by letters informing them of their termination, including information on severance packages.
“Employees at the Meadows Outpatient facility (in Bellefonte) were provided information and encouraged to apply for open positions at nearby sister facilities located in the region,” Grabowski said.
For those enrolled in outpatient care through UCBH, he said, “we are committed to working with each individual to facilitate a smooth transition to the appropriate next level of outpatient care.”
Grabowski added that The Meadows, a 119-bed behavioral health care inpatient facility, at 132 The Meadows Drive in Centre Hall remains “open and fully operational to serve patients, families and the community.”
Corman said the county is “working with our partners, our managed care company regarding individuals with Medical Assistance and our provider system to address the needs of this closure announcement.”
She and county administrator Margaret Gray said the county will outline its plan for “continuity of services” at Tuesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting at 10 a.m.
The news comes amid a countywide reckoning over mental health services, particularly in crisis intervention. A new walk-in crisis center, which the county has been planning for years, is set to open this month to fill the need for crisis intervention services.
UCBH’s Bellefonte clinic is the company’s fifth outpatient clinic in the area to close or change ownership. In 2015, the company closed its outpatient facilities in Mill Hall and Juniata and within the last year community-based mental health care provider CenClear took over UCBH’s outpatient facilities in Yeagertown and Huntingdon.
UCBH is a subset of Universal Health Services, a King of Prussia-based behavioral health company that operates over 300 facilities in 37 states, the United Kingdom and Puerto Rico. In July, UHS agreed to a $127 million settlement in an investigation from the Department of Justice’s Civil Division and several states that UHS incorrectly billed Medicare and Medicaid programs.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 7:10 AM with the headline "The Meadows will close its Bellefonte outpatient clinic, crisis services."
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