Olney PD Faces Shortfall over Inmate Medical, Mental Health Exams

The Olney Police Department paid more for inmate medical and psychiatric exams than it budgeted so far in 2022, and questions linger over who should pay for care for detainees and inmates, Chief Dan Birbeck said at the Feb. 14 City Council meeting.

According to a City budget audit, the police department budgeted $700 for the 2021- 2022 for medical and mental health exams for people arrested in Olney and transported to Young County Jail in Graham but has exceeded that sum already.

Although Birbeck told the Council he was unsure about whether Olney Hamilton Hospital had started billing for indigent inmates, hospital administrator Mike Huff told the Enterprise that the hospital has been billing the City all along but only began getting paid for the exams when Birbeck took over as chief of police in July 2020.

“There has not been a change in our policies – we are not doing anything differently,” Huff said. “We would send the bill to the city – and it historically has not been paid. Now it is being paid, so if you look at it historically versus now, it looks like you’re way over. We were writing it off as bad debt.”

Birbeck said he was unsure what his predecessor did with the bills, but he immediately presented them to City administrators and was told to pay them.

“I guess that shows the City is trying to do the right thing and has good leadership,” Birkbeck said. “We are going to have to do some research as to whether a custodial patient is the responsibility of the City because we don’t have the money to do this. Because these were never getting paid, they were never on the budget.”

Texas Mental Health and Safety Code 571 provides “humane care and treatment” for people with severe mental illness by “enabling the person to obtain a necessary evaluation, care, treatment, and rehabilitation with the least possible trouble, expense, and embarrassment to the person and the person’s family.”

The code does not say who pays for that care, and therein lies a persistent problem for law enforcement, Birbeck said.

At their Feb. 14 meeting, Young County commissioners also discussed the issue of reimbursement for costs associated with inmates brought from Baylor County, which does not have a jail.

“There absolutely is a rise in the number of mental health emergencies,” he said. “Years ago, mental health was defunded in Texas. A lot of beds were closed down, and, by de facto, our county jails and law enforcement have been left to deal with the problem.

The result can be seen nationally in “law enforcement having to deal with mentally ill patients and the bad outcomes that come from those encounters,” he said. “(The patients) are at that point because there is limited care for indigent mental health care.”

Birbeck said he had presented the problem to every political candidate who visited Olney, with little result.

“I never get an answer, but I have volunteered to be on committees, anything that I can do to contribute to solve the problem,” he said.

Birbeck said the law requires police officers to take detainees suffering psychiatric emergencies to the nearest mental health facility for evaluation but does not mandate a medical evaluation unless the patient is injured. Helen Farabee Centers, the mental health provider that serves Young County and the neighboring 17 counties, also started requiring police to obtain medical exams for some patients, Birbeck said.

“The code doesn’t say take them to a hospital and get them medically cleared then transport them to a psychiatric facility - that’s part of the (budget) overage,” he said. “But they have a tremendous burden with limited resources. I don’t think they have the capacity to address it. And I think if they step back and listen to what I’m saying as chief of police in their community, I’m advocating for them to get more help.”