Cullman’s Alabama Psychiatric Services, seen here Wednesday, will close Feb. 13, citing a funding decrease from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama and a change in the insurance company’s model of providing behavioral health. It’s not clear how many local patients will be affected by the closure. Alabama Psychiatric Services operates 17 other offices across the state.

Local patients of Alabama Psychiatric Services in Cullman will have to seek treatment elsewhere with the announcement Wednesday the medical provider is shuttering all 18 of its offices across the state.

The closings will be effective Feb. 13 and will reportedly affect 300 employees and 28,000 patients across the state. It is unclear how many patients will be affected at the Cullman outpatient clinic at 409 Second Ave. N.W. Staff there declined to provide any information about the closing Wednesday.

A statement on Alabama Psychiatric Services’ website cited a funding decrease from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama and a change in the insurance company’s model of providing behavioral health as the reason for the closings.

“We would have liked to have given both our patients and our employees more notice of our closure, but this was not possible under the circumstances,” the statement on Alabama Psychiatric Services’ website read Wednesday. “APS is making every effort to provide care and transition patients to other providers and our own providers who join or develop their own practices. APS is cooperating fully with other organizations to facilitate the resolution of this intense period.”

The company’s chief operating officer, Rusty Adams, provided no other details about the situation but said more information would be released in coming days.

In addition to Cullman, Alabama Psychiatric Services operates four offices in Birmingham, two in Dothan, two in Madison, two in Mobile, two in Montgomery and two in Tuscaloosa as well as offices in Decatur, Fairhope and Florence. In its online statement, Alabama Psychiatric Services said it provided mental health care for Alabama patients for more than 30 years.

Some of the Cullman clinic’s patients have turned to Mental Healthcare of Cullman for help. Executive Director Chris Van Dyke said his agency has received phone calls from patients seeking to relocate.

“The best thing patients affected by this can do is call Blue Cross Blue Shield and ask where their nearest provider is and where they need to go,” Van Dyke said.

Mental Healthcare of Cullman accepts some of the same Blue Cross Blue Shield plans Alabama Psychiatric Services accepts, however not all of them, he said.

“There’s been some rumors going around that another company may come in and take over the patients, but we haven’t heard any yet from Blue Cross Blue Shield,” Van Dyke said. “They’ve got until Feb. 13 though.”

A sign posted at the Cullman Alabama Psychiatric Services office provided more detail about the apparent breakdown between Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama and the mental health provider.

It stated the company had developed innovative specialized programs to target specific conditions which helped control rising costs of care. The initiatives entailed bringing in specialists, including child and adolescent physicians, that were badly needed in parts of the state.

Those services were funded in large part by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama’s Expanded Psychiatric Services, or EPS, policy, according to the statement posted at the Cullman office.

“Unfortunately, BCBSAL has greatly reduced its EPS membership and converted many patients to BCBSAL plans with high co-pays and deductibles,” the statement read. “The result is that APS cannot maintain its behavioral health services.”

The company claims it unsuccessfully tried to work out an agreement with Blue Cross Blue Shield and its behavioral health partner, New Directions Behavioral Health, based in Kansas City, Missouri through 2014 and up until this week.

Tiffeny Owens can be reached by email at towens@cullmantimes.com or by phone at 256-734-2131.