Opinion ID: 1161831
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: purchase of services act

Text: The plaintiffs argue that the trial court erred in denying their claims under the Community Mental Health Services Purchase Act, งง 27-1-201 to -208, 11 C.R.S. (1982 & 1988 Supp.) (Purchase of Services Act). This act provides authority for the Colorado Department of Institutions to purchase community mental health services from clinics, community mental health centers, hospitals and other agencies. Section 27-1-203, 11 C.R.S. (1982), states that: In order to encourage the development of preventive, treatment, and rehabilitative services through new community mental health programs, the improvement and expansion of existing community mental health services, and the integration of community with state mental health services, there is established a program to purchase community mental health services by the department of institutions. The act specifies the types of services that may be purchased and the limits on the amount the state can pay for these services, expressed as a percentage of cost. ง 27-1-204, 11 C.R.S. (1982). Section 27-1-205 and the rules promulgated under the Purchase of Services Act, see ง 27-1-202, 11 C.R.S. (1982 & 1988 Supp.), also specify the standards that mental health centers, clinics and hospitals must meet in order to qualify for state funding.
The trial court, in its May 7, 1985, order, noted that the Department of Institutions had entered into three contracts with the Denver Department of Health and Hospitals for the purchase of community mental health services within the northwest Denver catchment area for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1982. The court determined that the state, in purchasing mental health services from the municipal defendants, had failed to incorporate into these contracts adequate provisions to protect the rights of the chronically mentally ill under the Care and Treatment Act. However, the court did not find that the plaintiffs had rights under the Purchase of Services Act independent of those granted under the Care and Treatment Act, concluding that the provisions relating to the purchase of community mental health services create only an `encouragement through a purchasing' scheme. The court also found that the contracts for the purchase of services required DHH to adhere to the rules and regulations promulgated under the Purchase of Services Act. The court interpreted these regulations as requiring the municipal defendants to provide services to all class members in need and determined that DHH had not fully complied with these regulations. However, the court noted that it did not intend to imply that [the] implementary rules and regulations in and of themselves create any particular rights for the benefit of the Plaintiffs. Instead, the court concluded that the rules and regulations must be construed in a manner to afford class members the rights granted them under the Care and Treatment Act. Ultimately, in its October 10, 1986, Final Judgment Pursuant to C.R.C.P. 54(b), it dismissed the plaintiffs' claims under the Purchase of Services Act.
The plaintiffs argue that the Purchase of Services Act provides class members with substantive rights and that their claims under this statute were improperly dismissed. However, after reviewing the purposes and statutory framework of the act, we conclude that the Purchase of Services Act is merely a legislative encouragement of mental health programs that confers no substantive rights on the plaintiffs. Cf. Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman, 451 U.S. 1, 18-27, 101 S.Ct. 1531, 1540-1544, 67 L.Ed.2d 694 (1981) (concluding that the Developmentally Disabled Assistance and Bill of Rights Act is merely a funding statute and creates no substantive rights to treatment). As the defendants point out, the act encourages, but does not require, the development of mental health services. Although subsections 27-1-204(2) and (4)(a) contain language providing that each year the general assembly shall appropriate funds for the purchase of certain services, this language is necessarily precatory, since one legislature cannot bind future legislatures with respect to appropriations. See, e.g., Colo. Const., art. V, ง 32; Anderson v. Lamm, 195 Colo. at 443, 579 P.2d at 624. When this language is considered in the context of the statute as a whole, it becomes clear that these provisions do not guarantee any level of services or create any rights in persons receiving services. For instance, section 27-1-204(6), 11 C.R.S. (1982), contemplates that local governmental bodies may reduce financial support for community mental health services, and specifically provides that the state may respond to any such reduction with a proportional reduction in state payments. The plaintiffs also contend that the rules promulgated pursuant to the Purchase of Services Act provide them with the right to community-based mental health services. Rule 2.1, 2 C.C.R. 502-2 (1985), mandates that community mental health centers provide certain services, including day care, emergency and crisis services, consultation and education services, and access to vocational and rehabilitation services, to all persons in need who are residents of or located in the service area, and Rule 2.4.1, 2 C.C.R. 502-2 (1985), requires that mental health center services be accessible to all residents of the service area. The trial court interpreted these rules as mandating the provision of these services to all class members in need and pointed out that DHH is required by contract to strictly adhere to these rules and regulations. The plaintiffs assert that these rules create a right to community mental health services for all chronically mentally ill persons in northwest Denver. We disagree. The Purchase of Services Act is intended to encourage the development of community mental health programs and does not itself create substantive rights to community treatment. Therefore, the regulations enacted thereunder cannot create such rights, and the plaintiffs' reliance on the rules is misplaced. As we stated in Cohen v. State Department of Revenue, 197 Colo. 385, 390, 593 P.2d 957, 961 (1979), [a] regulation may only carry into effect the will and policy established by the legislature and may not modify or contravene the existing statute. Accord Miller Int'l, Inc. v. Department of Revenue, 646 P.2d 341, 344 (Colo.1982); Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Barnes, 191 Colo. 278, 552 P.2d 300 (1976). Any regulation that is inconsistent with or contrary to a statute is void. Miller Int'l, 646 P.2d at 344; Weed v. Occhiato, 175 Colo. 509, 511, 488 P.2d 877, 879 (1971). The rules set forth in 2 C.C.R. 502.2, which were promulgated under the Purchase of Services Act, do not create substantive rights, but simply describe the minimum standards that community mental health centers, clinics, and hospitals must meet to qualify as vendors of services under the Purchase of Services Act. We also note that in applying these regulations the Department of Institutions has not interpreted them as imposing an obligation on entities that accept state funding to develop and expand mental health programs. Instead, these rules are read as imposing a non-discrimination requirement on facilities that accept funding under the act. As the Director of the State Division of Mental Health testified at trial, the rules simply state that a community mental health center: is not to discriminate on the basis of class or whatever, that the people who live in the catchment area, all of them, should have access to services without one or the other group being excluded on that basis on some sort of discriminatory policy. The administrative interpretation of these regulations is entitled to great weight by the courts. Van Pelt v. State Bd. for Community Colleges, 195 Colo. 316, 323, 577 P.2d 765, 770 (1978). The trial court properly dismissed the plaintiffs' claims under the Purchase of Services Act.