Ramsey County is reviewing the fees it charges residents for emergency mental health services after a local television news report about the practice sparked criticism from advocacy organizations.

KMSP-TV on Sunday reported that people who called the county’s crisis help line during mental health emergencies were later billed for the services they received, while neighboring Dakota, Washington and Hennepin counties provide the same services at no cost to residents.

The report said the county charged more than $1.1 million in the past three years for its mobile crisis intervention service, which dispatches a response team to treat residents experiencing a mental health emergency.

Fees

According to a county spokesman, the department of social services charges $62.50 for every 15 minutes that a team spends assessing a patient, plus $1 per minute of travel time.

“These fees are billed to insurance providers whenever possible, otherwise a variety of options are offered to the patient including a sliding fee schedule or payment plan,” county officials said in a statement published Tuesday.

Mental health advocates expressed “deep disappointment” over the revelations in the KMSP report.

In a joint statement released Thursday, Mental Health Minnesota and the Minnesota chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness said they “are extremely concerned to learn that Ramsey County is charging individuals for using mental health crisis services” and called on the county to end the practice.

Ramsey County officials respond

Ramsey County officials say they were taking seriously the feedback shared by members of the community following KSMP’s report.

“Based on this feedback, we are reviewing our mental health crisis fees,” Ramsey County spokesman Casper Hill said in an email Thursday evening. “Our objective is to gather comprehensive data, establish best practices and understand how other counties that offer similar services address this matter. The review will be provided to the board to determine next steps as any changes to the current fee structure require a board action.”

Ramsey County currently has no plans to change how it bills for emergency mental health services.

“The county will continue to bill health insurance providers and only bill individuals when there is no health care coverage or there are copays and deductibles,” Hill said.

Issues raised in report

Among the issues raised in the KMSP-TV report was the fact that the charges for emergency mental health services were not disclosed on the county’s crisis intervention webpage, nor were they listed on its most recent fee schedule.

Ramsey County said Tuesday that it would post “information to our website clarifying the fee and payment options for crisis services” and add the same information to the script used by staffers on its the mental health crisis phone line.

KSMP-TV also noted that the county initially told its reporter that federal law and state funding requirements compelled it to charge residents for the services in question. County officials later acknowledged that both of these statements were false.

“We would like to apologize directly to our constituents for initially providing the incorrect data and any confusion or harm it caused,” the county statement said.

A man who was billed $342 by the county last year for crisis mental health services told KMSP that he worries the charges will discourage people from seeking the care they need.

“We believe it is critical that this life saving service is available to all residents regardless of income,” Ramsey County officials said Tuesday. “We will continue to look at ways to improve our mental health and crisis response service.”

For help

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, you can call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. More information is available at 988lifeline.org and Save.org.

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