POTTERVILLE — A 15-year-old Ingham County boy with severe mental health issues that left him unable to safely live at home could have received residential treatment in Lansing, where his adoptive parents would have been able to visit him multiple times a week.
Instead, he started treatment in Ohio, five hours away from his family. When his parents’ commercial insurance no longer covered the treatment, rather than paying $616 a day out of pocket, they opted to move him to a facility in the Upper Peninsula, which was more affordable but is an eight-hour drive from their Potterville home.
Multiple medical professionals suggested inpatient treatment for the teen, but the Community Mental Health Authority of Clinton, Eaton and Ingham Counties — which provides publicly funded mental health, behavioral health and developmental disability services — refused to approve residential treatment for him. It also declined to allow him to use his Medicaid coverage, which he has as a former foster child. The agency argued that it didn’t believe it was necessary…