BY B.G. GREGG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Children's Home of Cincinnati is closing its residential treatment center for kids in June, blaming managed care for cutting its client base.
The home had beds for 36 troubled kids two years ago, but now is licensed for 24 beds and only serving about 17 kids, said Wesley Young, executive director of the children's home.
In the past two years, the county has contracted with two agencies -- FCF Management Inc. and Magellan Public Solutions -- to control the costs of serving troubled children. Those agencies have moved away from institutions and toward cheaper home-based care.
"They've really wanted to manage the competition and drive the costs down," Mr. Young said. "And there's been no commitment to keep the kids in the county."
The Children's Home now charges $205 a day to treat someone at its residential center, which opened in 1970. Mr. Young said that actual costs are $285, and the children's home was subsidizing the loss from other parts of its budget.
The cost is higher than most other facilities. The average cost of care in Ohio is $175 a day, and the county is sending some troubled kids to the controversial Arizona Boys Ranch, which costs only $143 a day.
FCF Management has been criticized for sending teens to the Boys Ranch because it is so far away and because it has been investigated for abusive practices several times. But the ranch is cheaper, and its boot-camp style is seen as the best method of treatment for some of the county's most troubled youth.
Mr. Young is not convinced that limiting a child's stay in residential treatment to four months -- as some managed care companies are doing -- is in the best interests of the child.
"We really think, to change the kid, you need 18 months to two years," he said.
Mindy Good, a spokeswoman for the Hamilton County Department of Human Services, which refers most of The Children's Home's clients, said kids who need residential treatment can be treated at other facilities with whom the county does business -- both in and out of the county.
"The reason for bringing managed care to child protection is to increase effectiveness and efficiency, not only for the child, but for the taxpayer," she said. "Everyone expected that at least some providers would change their business practices."
The children staying in the home's treatment center will either be sent to other treatment centers or to therapeutic foster homes, Mr. Young said.
The closing at the children's home will impact 14 employees, but Mr. Young hopes to keep them employed in the home's other programs. He said the home will expand its day-treatment program, where troubled children visit during the day for help dealing with their problems, expanding its adoption program and establishing a day care and network of family-based day care providers.
"People actually think of us just as the children staying here, but we're much more than that," he said.
