CARIBOU, Maine – Cost-cutting measures and staff recruitment efforts have not been enough to save Northern Maine General’s outpatient and case management programs, slated to close by the end of March, according to CEO Michelle Raymond.
The Aroostook County social services agency’s outpatient and community-based behavioral health and case management program closures affect 154 clients and 12 professional staff, said Raymond.
Staffing shortages and dwindling Maine Care reimbursements that did not keep pace with the rising costs are at the core of their decision to shutter the programs, she said.
“On a cost scale, we have been downsizing, stretching employee responsibilities, not rehiring some positions that were retired just to slow it down in hopes that our efforts and some of the funding mechanisms would change,” Raymond said, adding that the larger issue is a workforce shortage.
“This is very heartwrenching,” she said.
Northern Maine General’s closure comes amid a rash of health-related program closures throughout Aroostook County and the state. Staff shortages, declining reimbursements and regulatory pressures have forced other providers to recently close programs.
Last May Houlton Regional Hospital became the 11th in Maine to disband birthing services. Not to mention a Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform January 2026 report, that said 24 of the state’s rural hospitals are at immediate risk of closing.
“You have to be very competitive in your wages at this stage of the game and people who are dependent on MaineCare service reimbursement rates struggle,” Raymond said. “There has to be a different stream of revenue in order to provide those services.”
According to a 2025 audit report, obtained in late December by the Bangor Daily News through Big Local News, a Stanford University data service, auditors questioned whether Northern Maine General could keep its doors open despite administrative efforts to cut costs.
“The Organization’s significant losses and negative cash flows from operations in 2025 and 2024 raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern,” auditors from Berry Dunn, Portland, said in their audit report.
Raymond said the auditor’s report was not the impetus for the closure.
Among the 154 NMG outpatient clients affected, a number of them receive clinical therapy. But the majority are under behavioral health home coordination, case management and targeted case management for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Raymond said.
She has reached out to several providers in the area to see if they have the capacity for referrals to find services through other providers. Some people will be discharged and referred to providers and others will be transferred to another provider, Raymond said.
“Our primary focus remains on the well-being of our clients and employees,” Raymond said.
Clients will be contacted directly by their NMG case manager or health home coordinator to make a transition plan, she said.
Twelve employees, some who have been with Northern Maine General for 25 years, will lose their jobs. Raymond said she met with those employees on Thursday. They include the program leaders, clinical positions, home health coordinators and a small number of behavioral health professionals.
Northern Maine General’s home and community-based service and the residential waiver brain injury program — which includes adults with intellectual disabilities and or adults with brain injury — will remain open as will their oversight of shared living programs.
NMG closed Mercy Home, its nursing home and long-term care facility in Eagle Lake, in May 2025, as a means to address workforce shortage and revenue shortfall.
Questions from clients or guardians and inquiries from available service providers, should be directed to Lydia Christie, Targeted Case Management Program Manager; Esther Cyr, Clinical Director; Paula Evens, Health Home Coordinator; or Tammy Michaud, Section 28 Program Manager at (207) 444-5152.
