County approves three‑year juvenile justice medical services contract with Blue Mountain Heart to Heart

The Walla Walla County Board of Commissioners authorized a three‑year personal services agreement Dec. 29 with Blue Mountain Heart to Heart to provide medical services at the Juvenile Justice Center (JJC) and to handle billing and coding to recoup Medicaid‑eligible charges.

Court Services staff, represented by Nori, said the county issued an RFP seeking a provider that could deliver both direct medical/behavioral services and case management for the Health Care Authority’s medication transformation work but received no full responses. Blue Mountain Heart to Heart, the JJC’s current medical partner since about 2021, agreed to continue services at a higher market rate and to perform billing and coding so the organization can bill managed care organizations (MCOs) and apply reimbursements against county invoices.

Nori explained that under the transformation project, managed care organizations are responsible for reentry‑focused targeted case management; if the county cannot provide that service directly, the MCOs will deliver it. Blue Mountain Heart to Heart will bill for medical services that are Medicaid‑eligible (for example through Molina) and deduct reimbursements from its invoices to the county, which should reduce net county costs over time.

Commissioners discussed contract length (three years, with possible renewals), alignment with HCA program timelines, and the county’s longer‑term goal of moving billing in‑house when capacity is developed. The motion to authorize the board to sign the contract passed 3‑0.

What to watch: staff plan to use capacity‑building funds from the HCA project to learn the managed‑care billing workflow and eventually evaluate whether to hire county staff for billing and coding to reduce long‑term costs.