Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo in immediate jeopardy of losing Medicare status

Federal regulators have threatened to eliminate the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo from the Medicare program by June 28 unless it remedies severe staff shortages at the 449-bed hospital.

CMHIP administration is putting staff on forced overtime and taking other measures to shore up the shortage of nurses and other personnel, according to the Colorado Department of Human Services.

It's that threat of being shut out of the federal insurance system that forced CMHIP to close the well-known CIRCLE addiction treatment program earlier this week, even though the 90-day program had its funding renewed by state lawmakers.

Complaints from staff and CIRCLE patients to The Pueblo Chieftain this week led to DHS officials explaining Friday that the hospital was in "immediate jeopardy" of losing its Medicare status.

Read more: http://www.chieftain.com/news/pueblo/colorado-mental-health-institute-at-pueblo-in-immediate-jeopardy-of/article_663a57a2-8b02-5d5a-bf89-2100010af813.html