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Authors Posts by Fady Sahhar

Fady Sahhar

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Fady is responsible for policy and regulatory matters related to Physical Disabilities and Aging, with primary focus on personal assistance, employment services, and service coordination. Emphasis is placed on engaging the Office of Long-Term Living and the Community HealthChoices Managed Care Organizations, coordination of care with Behavioral HealthChoices MCOs, and collaborations with other advocacy and provider associations. Fady is also the President / CEO of ProVantaCare, an RCPA-affiliated company focused on contracting with MCOs, and is the President of XtraGlobex, a consulting firm focused on Value-Based Payment contracting. He brings extensive experience in the advocacy and operations of human services providers in physical disabilities and aging, from his role at Liberty Resources, Inc., and his service with a number of nonprofit services providers. He earned an MBA in Marketing from The University of Tennessee and a PhD in Organizational Leadership from Capella University.

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The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) of the Department of Human Services (DHS) is working closely with the Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) and the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) to ensure preparedness for OLTL participants in response to a possible outbreak of COVID-19. OLTL is aware that the Pennsylvanians we serve, including those that are Nursing Facility Clinically Eligible (NFCE), are an extremely vulnerable population in relation to morbidity and mortality related to a COVID-19 outbreak. DOH is designated to lead the response for the Commonwealth to COVID-19. Currently, Pennsylvania does not have a confirmed case of COVID-19.

In response to numerous inquiries related to guidance for COVID-19, OLTL has gathered the following resources for information from DOH and other sources:

  • Resources for health care facilities, including steps health care facilities can take, interim guidance for health care facilities, and strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Long Term Care (LTC) facilities, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • For questions about OLTL compliance issues related to COVID-19, providers can submit concerns via email. Otherwise, please visit the DOH site, which has several downloadable documents that can be used for information dissemination, or call 877-PA-HEALTH.

DHS is supporting DOH in the dissemination of information related to COVID-19, and all guidance is provided by, and should be sought through, DOH.

All OLTL providers, including Community HealthChoices (CHC)-MCOs are encouraged to:

  1. Review infection control protocols at the facilities and agencies who provide care for their participants;
  2. Evaluate staff adherence to provider infection control protocols; and
  3. Evaluate the capacity to implement emergency backup plans in the event that staffing is impacted by the COVID-19 virus.

While COVID-19 is raising concerns, it is also an opportunity to evaluate preventative infection control measures. Medically fragile individuals, including those participants who are NFCE and their supporting staff, are all at increased risk for infection of all kinds, not just COVID-19. As always, prevention is the best response, and the best prevention is good infection control.

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As a reminder, section 12006 of the 21st Century Cures Act requires all states to implement the use of EVV for Medicaid-funded personal care and home health care services. EVV must be implemented for personal care services by January 1, 2020, and for home health care services by January 1, 2023.

OLTL waiver services included in the initial implementation of EVV:

  • Personal Assistance Services (Agency and Participant-Directed Model)
  • Participant-Directed Community Supports
  • Respite (unlicensed settings only)

As part of the soft launch period, claims submitted to PROMISeTM for services subjected to EVV will be validated against EVV visits submitted through the Department of Human Services (DHS) Sandata system or DHS Aggregator. During claims processing in PROMISeTM, EVV validation against the DHS Aggregator will continue to be performed and EVV Error Service Codes (ESCs) will set without impacting claim payment. The ESCs for EVV will become active on December 13, 2019, for claims submissions with dates of service on or after November 1, 2019. Providers are expected to review when the EVV edit(s) set and actively make corrections either to the data stored in the DHS Aggregator or the claim itself to ensure errors do not repeat.

Please see this chart of EVV-specific ESCs for reference. If you have questions about EVV, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions document on the DHS EVV website or contact the EVV Resource Account.

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The Pennsylvania Health Access Network and Philadelphia Health Partnership, at the request of the Department of Human Services, along with the support of the University of Pittsburgh’s Medicaid Research Center, will host a series of listening sessions in the southeast region to understand the experiences of older adults and people with disabilities covered by Pennsylvania’s new Medicaid program, Community HealthChoices (CHC).

The listening sessions will be held as follows:

Tuesday, June 25, 2019: 10:00 am, at Delaware County Housing Authority (Delaware County)
Kinder Park Community Room: 1825 Constitution Avenue, Woodlyn, PA 19094

Wednesday, June 26, 2019: 10:00 am, at Aclamo Family Center (Montgomery County)
512 West Marshall Street, Norristown, PA 19401

Thursday, June 27, 2019: 10:15 am, at Brandywine Center (Chester County)
744 East Lincoln Highway, Coatesville, PA 19320

Friday, June 28, 2019: 10:15 am, at Congreso (Philadelphia)
2800 North American Street, Philadelphia, PA 19133

Friday, June 28, 2019: 2:45 pm, at South Philadelphia Library (Philadelphia)
1700 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19145

RSVP: 844-474-2643

OTHER INFORMATION: This is a free event. Light refreshments will be provided. Space is accessible. To request an interpreter or materials in Braille, please contact: jessica@pahealthaccess.org

A listserv has been established for ongoing updates on the CHC program. It is titled OLTL-COMMUNITY-HEALTHCHOICES, please visit the ListServ Archives page at http://listserv.dpw.state.pa.us to update or register your email address.

It is imperative that you notify the Office of Long-Term Living for changes that would affect your provider file, such as addresses and telephone numbers. Mail to/pay to addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers may be updated electronically through ePEAP, which can be accessed through the PROMISe™ provider portal. For any other provider file changes please notify the Bureau of Quality and Provider Management Enrollment and Certification Section at 1-800-932-0939 Option #1.

To ensure you receive email communications distributed from the Office of Long-Term Living, please visit the ListServ Archives page at http://listserv.dpw.state.pa.us to update or register your email address.

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