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A New Menu Item has Been Added to the Health Home Website
A new menu item has been added to the Health Home website.
The menu item is labeled:
Contact Information for Designated Health Homes
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OMH LIstening Tour
 The New York State Office of Mental Health Listening Tour website is now live and accessible. Visit this site to get information about OMH's upcoming Listening Tours where they want to hear from you. Your thoughts and creative ideas about the state-operated mental health system are very important as the look to prepare the system for the advent of managed care. Access the site by going to: OMH: Listening Tour
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State Will Develop Handgun Data Base
New York will spend $27.74 million to develop a statewide electronic handgun permit database as part of its new gun control law, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Tuesday.
Silver said the measure in the tentative state budget will create a central database of handgun permit records now kept at the county level. The new database will allow faster statewide cross-checking with records of crimes and involuntary commitments to mental health facilities.
The law also exempts records of individual handgun owners from the state Freedom of Information Law. That would avoid the conflict that arose when a newspaper reported the names of handgun permit holders and their addresses.
The database is a key element of the state gun control law. Another element is a broader ban on military-style rifles often called assault weapons.
The law has met with strong opposition by mostly upstate Republicans who see the law as an assault on Second Amendment rights. However, most New Yorkers support stronger gun control measures, particularly residents of New York City and its suburbs.
The funding is in the tentative state budget expected to gain final legislative approval in the Assembly later this week.
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Workplace Wellness Week
"Workplace Wellness: Why it Matters" provides information on why businesses should support workplace wellness initiatives, myths about mental illness; resources on how to support an employee with a mental health condition; facts about bullying and harassment; and measures to determine the signs of a healthy workplace. Click here to view the sources
May 12-18, is
National Prevention Week
This year's theme emphasizes that the prevention of substance abuse and promotion of mental health starts with the choices each of us makes in our own life. Through our choices, we can set an example of health and well-being for others. With our voices-whether spoken or written-we can raise awareness of behavioral health issues and help create healthier and safer communities.
You can plan and host your own events, participate in the "I Choose" project, or take the "Prevention Pledge" to show your support and help raise awareness about behavioral health issues.
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CLMHD Calendar
Officer's & Chairs Conference Call
April 17 th
8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
Call In Only - contact CLMHD for access
Mental Hygiene Planning
April 11 th
11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
41 State Street Albany Suite 505
CLMHD SPRING FULL MEMBERSHIP MEETING HOLIDAY INN SARATOGA SPRINGS NY
Mentoring Workshop: Sunday, April 28
10 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Full Membership Meeting: Mon-Tues April 29-30
SAVE THE DATE: CLMHD COMMITTEE DAY
Tuesday, June 25, 2013 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Albany (TBD)
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The New York State Conference of Local Mental Hygiene Directors advances public policies and awareness for people with mental illness, chemical dependency and developmental disabilities. We are a statewide membership organization that consists of the Commissioner/ Director of each of the state's 57 county mental hygiene departments and the mental hygiene department of the City of New York.
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March 29, 2013
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Jeremy Darman, Director of Governmental Relations
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Last State Budget Bills Passing Today
Yesterday, Thursday March 28, 2013, the State Assembly was planning to pass all of the remaining final budget bills, which completes the State Budget process for the 2013-14 State Fiscal Year, which begins this Monday (the Senate passed the final budget bills yesterday). The overall size of the enacted budget is about the same as what the Governor proposed in January, at about $135 billion without counting several billion in one-time federal aid relating to Hurricane Sandy. There are no major surprises in this budget deal, perhaps with the exception of a provision indefinitely suspending the firearm magazine limit in the NY SAFE Act. At the end of the day there were no changes to any of the mental health provisions of this law. On the health and mental hygiene side, as you will see in your budget memo, the Legislature restored $30 out of $120 million in cuts to state-share Medicaid funding for OPWDD. It is unknown at this time whether the federal government will match these restored state-share funds; this will determine the actual cash/percentage reduction to Medicaid services in OPWDD settings. The Legislature also restored $25 million to OMH State Operations, to reject the Executive proposal for additional state-operated hospital downsizing in the upcoming fiscal year ($20 million were booked as state hospital savings with another $5 million set aside for reinvestment of closure savings). There was also a major victory in the expansion of prescriber prevails for several drug classes (including antidepressants and atypical antipsychotics) under Medicaid Managed Care, and in the ultimate rejection of the proposal to eliminate prescriber prevails in fee for service. A victory on the local government unit side was the approval in the final budget of language formally authorizing the continuation of the existing OASAS State Aid Funding Authorization process through State Aid Letters, averting the conversion of this process to 5-year contracts as had been proposed in spring 2012. Many thanks go out to the tireless staff at OASAS, the Division of Budget, Governor's Office, the Senate, and the Assembly for working with the Conference on this item (and many others this year). Conference members will be receiving a copy of our enacted budget memo today, detailing the final agreements (or rejections) on all relevant portions of this year's State Budget. As always, please feel free to call us at the Conference if you have any questions. -J.D. |
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U.S. Wants State to Pay After Audit of Youth Care
 In another critical assessment of New York's multibillion-dollar Medicaid program, a federal audit says the state improperly claimed $27.5 million in reimbursements for services to mentally ill and emotionally disturbed children and teenagers.
The report by the Department of Health and Human Services, which will be released Tuesday, outlines many deficiencies in a program of family-based rehabilitation, similar to foster homes, that offers help with a variety of life skills, counseling and other emotional support for young people 5 to 19 years old.
But in a random sampling of 100 claims from January 2005 to December 2009, the department's inspector general found dozens of administrative errors or other oversights, including staff members' not maintaining the requisite number of face-to-face visits, unreviewed logs by so-called professional parents in the homes, and recipients who were either too old for the program or not living in their assigned homes.
"Rehabilitation providers," the audit says, "did not fully comply with state regulations" and did not "adequately monitor the program."
As a result, the department has asked for a refund of $27.5 million from the state, or nearly 80 percent of the $35.2 million it paid to New York during the five-year period it sampled.
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Key Factors for Improving Care Delivery in Small Primary Care Practices with High Medicaid Volume
Small primary care practices play a critical role in caring for low-income individuals with chronic conditions, particularly patients who are racially and ethnically diverse. This new brief presents key findings from an evaluation of Reducing Disparities at the Practice Site (RDPS), a three-year Center for Health Care Strategies initiative to support quality improvement in small practices serving this high-need population.
RDPS tested the leverage that state Medicaid agencies and their health plan partners have in improving quality at the point of care. State-led teams in Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania participated in the initiative that included six to 12 small primary care practices in each state. Each state developed their own practice-based intervention including health information technology, a patient registry, care management resources, practice coaching, a learning collaborative for participating practices, and financial support to practices.
The evaluation confirmed that Medicaid agencies must provide the vision and leadership for quality improvement investment in these critical, but often forgotten practices. Furthermore, health plans, primary care case management programs, external quality review organizations, and other community-based organizations must play a critical role in working directly with these practices to improve chronic care management and reduce disparities in care.
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When abiding fear takes over some kids' lives, they respond with anger and aggression that's not premeditated. One psychiatrist says he's finding profound relief for a particular subgroup of these children in experimental research with the anesthesia drug ketamine.
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A key piece of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) calls for the expansion of children's mental health coverage by strengthening state and local prevention, intervention, and treatment systems. A new report identifies the systemic challenges to ensuring children's access to mental health care and points to encouraging examples of success from 11 states that can be used as a guide when implementing the ACA.
This study is the second in a series by George Washington University Center for Health and Health Care in Schools, a RWJF grantee, that reports on strategies to strengthen and sustain children's mental health services and prevent the onset of problem behaviors. The first, Developing a Business Plan for Sustaining School Mental Health Services, examines three case studies in which local communities partnered with state agencies to finance school-connected services.
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Spotlight on Children in Medicaid: New Resources
Medicaid and Children in Foster Care
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The health care needs of children in foster care are vast and compounded by their circumstances. Because they are often at the intersection of multiple public systems including behavioral health, child welfare, education, juvenile justice, and primary care, it is critical for these systems to work collaboratively to meet their health needs. Most children in foster care are insured through Medicaid, which makes state Medicaid agencies one of the major players in developing solutions to address the issues of this population.
This brief, produced by CHCS for the State Policy Advocacy Reform Center (SPARC), details the health care needs of children in foster care and the role of Medicaid in providing health coverage for this population. It also highlights existing policy levers that may help to address ongoing health and well-being issues faced by children in foster care. Read the brief
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Publishers Revel in Youthful Cruelty
Books about bullying, for youngsters and adults, are now so numerous they are a genre in themselves.
Read on....
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Editorial: How Consumers And Providers Can Report Abuses By Managed Mental Health Care Companies
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