In July 2010, federal investigators said the Mendota Mental Health Institute failed to provide adequate treatment for its patients. As a result, the Institute lost its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) federal certification for its Adult Assessment Treatment Unit (AATU), amounting to a loss of about $1 million in federal reimbursement for Medicare patients. According to Dane County executive, Kathleen Falk, county tax payers would now have to pay for hospital costs for patients referred to the hospital by the county court system instead of being paid for by Medicare. Officials at the Institute said that they could not comply with Federal rules that conflicted with state laws, for example the state allows patients to refuse group treatment, but federal rules require group participation. According to MMHI, the loss of certification and Medicare funding primarily affected Medicare eligible patients under age 22 and over 64. CMS Certification of other units was not affected. In September 2010, MMHI announced they would not be accepting additional patients in the adult assessment treatment unit (AATU) after December 1, 2010.