On October 7 the Community Mental Retardation System Financial Stability Act was introduced in both the Pennsylvania House and Senate. This legislation provides for the continuation of quarterly cash advances to mental retardation service providers. The quarterly interim payments would be subject to ongoing reconciliation resulting from periodic billings for services submitted by enrolled providers and to annual reconciliations of such billings. The prime sponsor of House Bill 2822 is Representative Kathy Manderino and the lead co-sponsor is Representative Dave Reed, with 112 co-sponsors signed on. In the Senate, Senate Bill 1603 was introduced with Senator Charles McIlhinney as the prime sponsor and Senator Jay Costa as the lead co-sponsor. Senate Bill 1603 currently has 21 co-sponsors, including both the majority and the minority leaders. The legislation is available on the PCPA web site.
The MH/MR Coalition, of which PCPA is a member, is working with the prime sponsors to sign and deliver a House letter (Manderino and Reed) and a Senate letter (McIlhinney and Costa) to Secretary Richman, asking her to direct counties to continue their historic practices on cash advances for the remainder of this fiscal year, in light of the overwhelming support for the continuation of cash advances as reflected in HB 2822 and SB 1603.
PCPA will keep members informed on progress of this legislation. Further questions may be directed to Linda Drummond (linda@paproviders.org) or Anne Leisure (anne@paproviders.org).
