Mind Springs Health is facing some serious issues, as been noted in multiple stories about the Western Slope mental and behavioral health provider.

But we agree with the executive directors of the three state agencies that commissioned an audit of the provider – the Colorado departments of Health Care Policy and Financing, Human Services and Public Health and Environment – pointing fingers at who is to blame isn’t as important as fixing them.

“To guess whether it was intentional or unintentional is less relevant than we change it,” HFPC Executive Director Kim Bimestefer told The Daily Sentinel’s Charles Ashby in an exclusive first-look at the audit that appears in today’s paper. “I prefer to not let the past be about why, but let the future be how, and that the corrective action fixes the issue of, whether it was intentional or not, to do things less transparent than they could have done.”

Still, the fact that three state agencies got together to do an audit of a single provider shows just how significant the issues were surrounding the Grand Junction-based Mind Springs, which operates numerous programs in 10 Western Slope counties.

Rocky Mountain Health Plans, also based in Grand Junction, was chosen to conduct the audit, in part, because it is contracted by HCPF to coordinate care and handle behavioral health Medicaid claims.

It found numerous issues with how Mind Springs prescribes medications, problems with staffing and a near complete lack of transparency, particularly with financial matters.

Those issues, according to the audit, were all a direct result of leadership, which Patrick Gordon, CEO of Rocky Mountain, said was extremely complicated, consisting of seven separate entities and three governing boards, some of which overlapped.

“That structure, we find, has contributed to sort of a disconnect between the community members who serve on the board and the feedback from the community that Mind Springs is organized to serve,” Gordon said.

To address that, the audit calls for a simplified board and leadership structure, one that addresses far more transparency for the nonprofit provider, and requires more accountability for its new leaders.

We are also told that Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland was one of the county leaders who complained about what has been happening at Mind Springs, and was instrumental in getting the three agencies to conduct the audit.

Rowland has made improving mental health services in the county a priority issue for her and the rest of the board.

The interim CEO at Mind Springs, Doug Pattison, said he embraces the results and recommendations in the audit, including a complete revamping of its management. Pattison took over in January after former CEO Sharon Raggio resigned.

We hope that reorganization is done sooner rather than later, including naming a new CEO, and the other recommendations are put in place.

We will be watching, not just because that’s our job, but because of the crucial need for mental health services.

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel editorial board