Guilford County renews Cone Health contract for behavioral health center

Guilford County renewed and amended its agreement with Cone Health to run the Behavioral Health Center at 931 Third St. in Greensboro for another five years, locking in a new term that started July 1 and runs through June 30, 2031. The first-year county cost is $4,215,914, and the total rises to $4,853,654 for fiscal 2026-27 once security payments are included.

The center sits just north of downtown and remains one of the county’s main public access points for behavioral health care outside a hospital emergency room. Guilford County also leases the building to Cone Health for $1 a year, a structure that keeps the county tied closely to the health system on both the property and the service side of the operation.

The money comes from the county’s Behavioral Health Maintenance of Effort dollars and supports urgent care, facility-based care, outpatient services and substance use recovery for adults and youth. County staff and Cone Health also identified changes meant to improve operations and the client experience, making the renewal more than a simple rollover of an existing contract.

For taxpayers, the question now is not just whether the center stays open, but what the county is getting for nearly $4.9 million in the first year alone. The center’s performance will come down to whether it is moving people quickly into care, handling crisis cases before they land in a hospital emergency department, and producing measurable results for residents who use it.

That means Guilford County will have to show more than that the doors stayed open at 931 Third St. Officials will need to track patient volume, wait times, crisis diversion, outcomes and oversight closely enough to tell whether the public investment is delivering the level of service the county is paying Cone Health to provide.