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January 9, 2014
The New York State Conference of Local Mental Hygiene Directors   
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Betsy Gorman, Editor
bg@clmhd.org
WEBINARS & Resources:

 


 

2012 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services

Available

 

7 New Grant Opportunities

for Substance Abuse Treatment Programs and Mental Illness here 

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CHIS: Creating the business case for integrated care toolkit

 

 

NYSDOH: The deadline for submitting comments (in response to the Request for Information, or RFI) related to NY's Draft Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for BH Benefit Administration has been extended to close of business on January 17, 2014.  More.

 

NYSDOH: NYS Health Innovation Plan (SHIP) final documents here.

  

NYSDOH: The Health Home Program has created a new web page covering Health Information Technology (HIT). This web page currently details HIT Standards and progress of all Health Homes as of December 2013.  More. 

 

NYSDOH: Council Passes Ambulatory Care Regs.  More.

 

NYS Medicaid has announced that practitioners must now be enrolled in Medicaid to enable them to continue to prescribe medication for Medicaid beneficiaries (dual eligible patients may also be affected).  More.

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The Intersection of Housing Policy and Health

January 24 12:30-2:00

Register

 

Providers: Prepare for the Transition to ICD-10

January 24th 12-1:30

Register

 

DOH: 2014 OMH/MHANYS Suicide Prevention Minigrants Webinar

January 31 3PM

Register

   

 

 

Save the Date for the next CLMHD Committee Day:  
Tuesday, February 25th 
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 pm 
 Best Western Albany, NY

JANUARY:

  

Children & Families Committee 
January 14th
11:30-1 GTM/Call In

CLMHD/OMH/DOH
HEALTH HOME CALL 
January 16th 
10:00-11:00 
DCSs: call CLMHD for PIN

Fiscal Officers Workgroup 
January 28th 
9:00 - 10:00 
GTM/Call In
 
Director's Meetings
January 28th
10:30 - Noon
Albany - 41 State Street

Executive Committee Meeting
January 28th
12:30 - 2:00
Albany 41 State Street Albany


February:

Officers & Chairs
February 5th 8-9 AM Call-in

Children & Families Committee 
February 11th
11:30-1:00 GTM/Call In 

Mental Hygiene Planning
February 13th
11:00-2:00
41 State Street Suite 505 Albany
 
CLMHD/OMH/DOH
HEALTH HOME CALL 
February 20th
10:00-11:00 
DCSs: call CLMHD for PIN

 

Executive Committee
February 24th 12:30-2:00
41 State Street Suite 505 Albany

 

Fiscal Officers Workgroup
February 25th
9:00-10:00 GTM/Call In  

 

CLMHD Committee Day 
February 25th
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 pm
Best Western Albany, NY
State of the State:
Cuomo's Local Government Consolidation Proposal Draws Response

 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is renewing his push to consolidate the thousands of local governments in New York and is making his proposal more enticing by linking it to a tax credit in his new tax cut package.

  

The New York State Association of Counties is a bipartisan municipal association serving the counties of New York State including the City of New York.  CLMHD is an affiliate of NYSAC.

 

Stephen Acquario, the Executive Director of the New York State Association of Counties, said the governor's proposal was promising, but that it should be part of a broader discussion that includes more mandate relief for local governments. Acquario also noted that state regulations prevent the sharing of certain services, including workers' compensation and health insurance, a significant cost driver.

 

"There is no reason why a county should not be authorized to reach out to towns, villages, cities, school districts and centralize procurement of health insurance for all of the local governments within its jurisdiction. We can't do that," he said. "That is just one example of the problems where the state has barriers to reform to save the local taxpayers money."  More 

Erie: Treatment will continue for former alcohol and drug agency's clients

 

After a holiday week scramble by Erie County and New York State mental health departments, hundreds of former clients of Alcohol and Drug Dependency Services will be able to continue treatment without interruption into 2014, most of them in the same locations and with the same staff.

 

ADDS, which operated inpatient halfway house and outpatient alcohol and drug treatment services for adults and teens at five locations in Erie County, lost its operating license Tuesday. Four other treatment agencies confirmed they accepted the governments' request to take over the ADDS clients, effective Wednesday.

 

Ellery Reaves, county commissioner of mental health, said ADDS had serious revenue problems in the past year after anticipated state payments for patient treatment did not come through.

 

"ADDS began to experience some financial issues involving their billings through the state Medicaid system after New York switched to a managed care system," Reaves said. "Basically, their expenses overrode their revenues - they were unable to pay their bills."

 

He said the situation seemed to be caused by a lack of suitable infrastructure at ADDS "to catch the nuances of the changes in Medicaid billing."

Read more. 

 

Mental health issues discussed by Ulster County, elected officials   

 

Commissioner Carol Smith, MD, Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, Chair of NYS Assembly Mental Health Committee, County Executive Hein and Senator CeciliaTkaczyk

KINGSTON - Mental health officials, professionals and state legislators put their heads together with Ulster County Executive Michael Hein on Monday to discuss local impacts of ongoing state aid cuts for mental health services.

Hein noted that in his county alone, state reimbursements for mental health services have been cut by 50 percent over the last several years, amounting to $8 million in funding that is not available at a time when demand for mental health services is at an all time high.  Read more.

 

State Considers Size of Medicaid Savings

 

New York health officials are trying to determine whether adding an additional insurance option will deliver as much in Medicaid savings as originally estimated.

 

The "basic health" plan, newly available under the Affordable Care Act, was initially estimated to save the state $600 million in Medicaid costs.

But new calculations suggest it could save far less than health advocates estimated, and enacting the new option could face a difficult path in the legislature. 

 

The basic health option is a separate insurance plan that would be made available on the state's health exchange, and would provide insurance for an estimated 486,000 New Yorkers, made up of recent legal immigrants and people whose incomes are between 138 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level (between $15,00 and $21,800 per year).  Read more. 

What is the Fiscal Health of My Local Government?

 

Fulton is one of the first two municipalities in New York state to formally ask the state for help and advice on its mounting financial problems. (The other is the town of Fishkill in Dutchess County.) . 

 

The state comptroller created a fiscal monitoring system to give the public a systematic way to understand the fiscal health of local governments. It's a score for each community's financial health. (The data currently covers 1,043 local governments who operate on a calendar fiscal year. The state plans soon to add other local governments that operate on a non-calendar year including several major cities, like Syracuse.)

The financial indicators used in the score evaluate the ability of the local government.  Read more.   

 

 

 

Westchester appeals in fight with HUD over community grants

 

 After losing millions in 2011 community development grants in late September, Westchester County is continuing its legal fight over the larger issue of the federal government's power to withdraw grants over the county's compliance with the 2009 fair housing settlement and federal fair housing law. Read more.

 

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.
 
Affiliated