Provider Association Notes – July 2015
Regional Listening Sessions- to be held in September on the topic of Transformation Agenda. More details to follow.
Employment listening sessions- will be held separately. Unclear when this will happen
As per 2015- 2016 state budget, an Office of Community Living is being studied (combination of senior services and services for people with disabilities. Similar to structure many states use). OPWDD has been carved out of this by Executive Order. Individuals with physical disabilities feel they don’t have any voice in state government. Report due in December.
Property thresholds – new regs will be out retro to 1/1/2015 with 2.7% increase.
BIP grants- requested to extend deadline for expenditures to September 2017. They anticipate approval of this in near future.Will notify all when they hear from CMS.Working with OFC on contract approvals.
Vacancy Management to incorporate HCBS philosophy into their mission statement.Expectation to match preferences & needs in residential placements. Providers are encouraged to help establish Circles of Support.
Health & Safety Alert issued recently on community activities safety is being revised. It was meant to look at individualized supports and governed transportation by providers or contractors.Was not meant for public transportation, transportation from families or natural supports.
Changes to Article 16 services.New service- Preventative- will be state plan, not waiver service.Q & A to be issued soon.
ICF conversions- updated guidance issued in June. Want more details on person centered planning. Numbers are good- 59 proposals for 521 individuals are in the pipeline. It will no longer be okay to be an ICF one day and wake up the next morning in an IRA. If you have ICF’s over 14 beds, make sure you complete the recently released survey.
$50 M Infrastructure Grant- RFP’s to be issued in September/October.Will be open to OPWDD, DOH, OMH, OCFS and OASIS agencies. Eligible projects include EHR, physical plant, etc.
Grants Gateway- make sure you have pre-qualified and keep this updated (especially Vendor Responsibility form- which is required every 6 months for each grant- so you may need to update frequently)
Nurse Practice Act- CON’s to certify all waiver services- up to 17 different services. Earliest possible implementation is Summer 2016.Will need addendum to AMAP training for CommHab providers.Talking to DOH about how to pay for this (although with all other changes this has not been a priority!).
Donna Cater- Still working on respite rates.New Day Hab rates will be out soon.
New IRA rates should be out by mid August.Changes to acuity factors. E score is no longer being used.
Want to “flatten the tails” of the bell curve for the acuity factor. If you are 1 standard deviation away from the state average of hours- then they will use a formula that is 85% your numbers and 15% of the average. If you are 2 standard deviations away, they will use 95% of your numbers and 5% of state average. Keep in mind, they will be using 2013 information, rather than the 2011 that they originally used. Hopefully, Donna will be able to explain this better in her memo to all.
Eventual goal is to have rates out at least one month prior to implementation.
CMS has given DOH/OPWDD until 10/1 to clean up all old rate appeals, etc. They are working hard to get everything done.
Joanne Howard spoke about the Community First funds. If you applied for these funds, you should receive your revised calculations by 7/24 and you’ll have until 7/31 to ask questions. August 7th final awards will be announced and contracts will go out in August. Don’t expect any money before the end of the year.