State hospital loses federal funds due to repeated safety issues

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) starting Tuesday will no longer reimburse the state for new patient care at the state’s only psychiatric hospital for adults. CMS sent a letter to the state on April 8 announcing the federal government's plan to pull the funding.

Inspectors with CMS in February warned the state it could lose funding after they found that the Montana State Hospital didn’t have measures in place to prevent COVID-19 infections and serious falls among patients, which led to four deaths. CMS inspectors returned at least three times, once after a violent attack by a male patient severely injured a female patient.

CMS again warned state health officials that the hospital could lose Medicare and Medicaid funding if it didn’t correct those problems. Inspectors found that the facility failed to do so.