This undated photo shows Phoenix Place, a long and short-term mental health treatment center run by Klamath Basin Behavioral Health in Klamath Falls, Ore.
Courtesy Klamath Basin Behavioral Health
This week staff at a Klamath Falls community mental health program asked county commissioners to help them find insurance.
Klamath Basin Behavioral Health, a community mental health program serving disadvantaged residents, created a facility to provide involuntary sobering services back in 2021. The space is meant to safely hold and provide resources to those being detained while intoxicated to keep them out of jail or from filling up emergency rooms.
But the nonprofit recently ran into a roadblock. Its insurance has refused to continue their coverage if that service is used for people under the influence of drugs.
“Insurance companies are now trying to mandate who [we can] and who we cannot serve as well as making it really cost prohibitive in a lot of cases to continue to provide the services that we believe our community needs,” said KBBF Chief Executive Officer Kendall Alexander, who brought the issue to the Klamath County board of commissioners on July 31.
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The clinic’s insurers will only cover the involuntary sobering service when used for those under the influence of alcohol. As a result, police in Klamath County can either bring those under the influence of drugs to the emergency room or jail, generally not an ideal choice for anyone. Alexander explained his clinic can provide more resources than those options, like links to care once the patient is released. But those patients can’t be accepted by KBBF in the first place without insurance coverage.
Alexander said it’s not only KBBF that’s facing coverage issues.
“This is a symptom of a much larger issue around the state of Oregon… insurance coverage for community mental health programs for communities and for counties is a significant issue,” he said.
Klamath County commissioners said they would try getting Citycounty Insurance Services, a provider used by local governments in Oregon, to cover KBBF. The CIS board is expected to consider the topic at a meeting later this month.
State Senate Bill 5506 directed the Oregon Department of Administrative Services to study barriers to insurance coverage for community mental health programs, specifically when treating people with behavioral health disorders who have been charged with a crime yet are unable to aid and assist in their own defense.
The Oregon Health Authority provided $5 million in 2021 to reimburse CMHPs for insurance costs required to serve this population. But a report released in 2024 found “[e]ven with this resource, sufficient insurance coverage has been difficult, and in some cases, impossible to purchase.”
