SAN ANTONIO – Troubled times for Laurel Ridge Treatment Center now have some patients looking for help elsewhere in their own times of trouble.
The North Side mental health and addiction care facility has been officially cut off from receiving payments from Medicare and Medicaid.
The change, which KSAT 12 News reported earlier this month, went into effect Thursday.
“It’s certainly a concern,” said Ann Marie Ivey, who showed up at the facility on Thursday morning.
Ivey said she works in the mental health field at another San Antonio-area facility. She arrived at Laurel Ridge with the intention of open her doors to any of the now-displaced patients who need assistance.
“To make sure that they have a safe place,” Ivey told KSAT. “They’re not going to end up in a hospital.”
On her way out of the facility, though, Ivey said she felt less than encouraged by the response she received from staff members.
“They did acknowledge that there is a need — that they have individuals who do need placement and that my information would be given to case management here,” Ivey said.
The loss of Medicaid and Medicare privileges is only one part of what has been an onslaught of problems for Laurel Ridge.
Last November, KSAT 12 News reported a state investigation found numerous safety violations inside the facility, which is located near Loop 1604 and Redland Road.
In its decision to ban Laurel Ridge, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also cited that the facility was out of compliance when it came to patient safety standards.
Earlier this week, Laurel Ridge confirmed its plans to lay off nearly 650 employees (648) as a result of the loss of Medicare and Medicaid services. The layoffs will take effect June 26.
KSAT 12 News has reached out through email and phone calls numerous times to the person listed as the facility’s chief executive officer, Ashley Sacriste, all to no avail.
When KSAT showed up at her home Thursday morning, a man who answered the door ordered us off the property.
A short time later, Sacriste arrived home in the middle of the workday. She asked our crew not to be there.
“Don’t come to my home,” Ashley Sacriste said. “I can email you.”
As of Thursday afternoon, she had not sent that promised email to KSAT.
Calls and emails to Laurel Ridge’s parent company, Universal Health System, went unanswered.
During a previous interview with Jelynne LeBlanc Jamison, president and CEO of The Center for Health Care Services, she expressed concern about the impact the situation at Laurel Ridge would have on the rest of the mental health community.
Jamison said there would be 330 fewer beds available for mental health inpatient treatment and worsen the current shortage in the region.
More recent Laurel Ridge coverage on KSAT: