Alaska Considers Privatizing Psychiatric Institute

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, in partnership with the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority (AMHTA), is considering privatizing the 80-bed Alaska Psychiatric Institute (API). API is Alaska’s only public psychiatric hospital. Currently, the DHSS Division of Behavioral Health (DBH) contracts for additional psychiatric inpatient treatment beds in the mental health units of two regional hospitals in Alaska (up to 12 beds at Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau and up to 20 beds at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital in Fairbanks).

The state envisions that the number of beds will remain at 80, and that the type and . . .