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ODP Announcement 22-092 provides a list of current Agency With Choice (AWC) Financial Management Service (FMS) organizations that are available to support participants and surrogates who have chosen to self-direct some or all of their Participant Directed Services (PDS) using the AWC FMS model and are in the Consolidated, Community Living, and Person/Family Directed Support (P/FDS) waiver. Read the full announcement for details.
Find ways to best support individuals who have serious mental illness (SMI) and are involved with the criminal justice process.There is a trend toward collaboration among behavioral health clinicians and the criminal justice system. Yet studies show that individuals who have SMI interact with the criminal justice system at higher rates than the general public. In fact, about two in five people who are incarcerated have a history of SMI.
This guide for mental health clinicians helps you better understand the criminal justice system process as it relates to individuals who have SMI. Learn what happens after an individual in your care is arrested or incarcerated. Gather insight on how you can best support and advocate for them.
If you have any questions, please contact RCPA Policy Director Jim Sharp.
The purpose of this Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) announcement is to remind providers to complete the ODP Community Participation Support System Capacity Survey and the Authorization Service Survey. See the survey questions below:
MyODP News Online Digest is a virtual publication from the Office of Developmental Programs (ODP). Please visit MyODP News Online for full stories. Story suggestions and/or comments may be sent electronically.
The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) issued the following notice regarding the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) one-time payments for personal care homes (PCH) and Assisted Living Residences (ALR):
Background Info:
Governor Wolf signed Act 54 of 2022, which allocates $26.767 million of federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for payments to nursing facilities (NF), personal care homes (PCH), and assisted living residences (ALR). To qualify for the one-time payment, a facility must be in operation as of July 1, 2022.
These one-time ARPA funds must be used for COVID-19 related costs not otherwise reimbursed by federal, state, or other sources of funding. OLTL will send a letter with details about the payments, including information about the approved use of and reporting on these funds. An Act 54 Facility Acceptance Form must be completed by September 2, 2022.
Additional information on Act 54, payment amounts and approved use of this funding will be available at the DHS Long-Term Care Providers page.
PCH/ALR Payments:
PCHs and ALRs must complete the Facility Acceptance Form by August 26, 2022. Checks will be issued and mailed in the order in which DHS receives the Facility Acceptance Forms.
Act 54 of 2022 requires the ARPA funding to be obligated by December 31, 2024, and spent by December 31, 2026, or returned to the commonwealth. Additionally, these funds must be used for COVID-19 related expenses. Providers must keep documentation to prove that these funds were used for their response to the COVID-19 pandemic in case of an audit. Any person or entity accepting an ARPA payment agrees to provide documentation to DHS, upon request, for purposes of determining compliance with Act 24 requirements. Instructions on expenditure reporting will be provided at a later date.
The Department of Human Services (DHS) recommends that providers consult their accountants or attorneys for further clarification on acceptable uses of ARPA funding. DHS encourages providers to review guidance for eligible expenditures on the U.S. Department of the Treasury website in their Compliance and Reporting Guidance.
Any questions about this information or the Facility Acceptance Form should be sent to PW, OLTL COVID Payments.
ODP Bulletin 00-22-06, which is a Department-wide bulletin that includes the Office of Medical Assistance Programs (OMAP) and the Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL), pertains to the implementation of Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) for Home Health Care Services (HHCS) that are effective August 10, 2022.
The bulletin is posted on the Department of Human Services Bulletin web page.
Advancing Health Equity: Leading Care, Payment, and Systems Transformation (AHE), a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is seeking applicants for the next cohort of the learning collaborative, which will include five teams comprised of Medicaid agencies, managed care organizations, and health care provider organizations or systems. The learning collaborative will help teams develop shared equity priorities, uncover the drivers of disparities in their member populations, and create payment models to support equity-focused care transformation.
There is growing consensus among health care policy experts that aligning payment and quality improvement activities offers critical opportunities to improve health equity. AHE recently released a Call for Applications to help multi-sector state teams advance their collective health equity goals. The initiative, led by the University of Chicago in partnership with the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) and the Institute for Medicaid Innovation, helps multi-organizational teams reduce and eliminate disparities in health and health care through a variety of approaches, including innovative Medicaid payment and contracting models.
Applications are due September 23, 2022.