AUGUSTA – The King administration is hailing a federal certification that qualifies the Augusta Mental Health Institute for more than $16 million in Medicaid and Medicare funds annually.

Commissioner Lynn Duby of the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services said AMHI passed a mental health compliance survey, a three-day evaluation that determines whether hospitals meet criteria for proper patient care.

“This is a very important milestone for AMHI,” Duby said Wednesday, adding that it speaks to the qualifications of the hospital’s staff and AMHI’s ability to provide excellent patient care.

A consent decree stemming from a 1990 class action suit by AMHI patients ordered the state to make widespread changes in its mental health care system. A Superior Court trial that opened in late October will determine the future of the consent decree.

In testimony in Kennebec County Superior Court, Duby told Justice Nancy Mills that the state has improved its services to the mentally ill significantly under the administration of Gov. Angus King.

But Peter Darvin, an attorney representing about 4,000 past and present AMHI patients in the case, said the state repeatedly has failed to meet the terms of the consent decree.

The decree requires individual treatment plans for patients, outlines rights of the mentally ill to have comment on their own care, and requires development of a comprehensive system of community-based care.

Last March, construction began on a new 92-bed state psychiatric hospital that will replace AMHI. The Riverview Psychiatric Center is scheduled to be completed in August 2003 and to begin accepting patients three months later.