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The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) today announced the availability of $3 million in funding for entities to provide pregnancy support services to address the needs of pregnant and postpartum women with substance use disorder (SUD).

Eligible applicants can find the project summary and budget on the Funding Opportunities page of the DDAP website. Approximately three to five grants, up to $600,000 each, will be awarded to help provide services, streamline care, and assure that this population is connected with the most appropriate resources to reach long-term recovery.

All applications must be submitted via email by 11:59 pm on Friday, July 29, 2022. Applications will be competitively reviewed and scored based upon the applicant’s adherence to the funding announcement guidelines and a timely submission to DDAP.

The grants are part of $59 million in federal funding awarded to Pennsylvania through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant Program.

Questions regarding the grants and the application process can be emailed to DDAP.

ODP Announcement 22-076 serves to announce that the Consolidated, Community Living, and Person/Family Directed Support (P/FDS) Waiver renewals, collectively known as the Intellectual Disability/Autism (ID/A) waivers, will not be effective on July 1, 2022, as requested.

This extension does not apply to the Adult Autism Waiver (AAW). The currently-approved AAW was most recently amended on April 1, 2022.

Discussions between the Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have been occurring since the submission of the waiver renewals. During recent discussions, it has become clear that the process to renew the waivers will not be complete by July 1. ODP requested a 90-day extension of the currently-approved waivers on June 27, 2022, since the Consolidated and Person/Family Directed Support waivers expire on June 30, 2022. CMS granted the extension request on June 27, 2022.

Until CMS approves the ID/A waiver renewals, the waiver amendments approved with an effective date of June 1, 2022, remain in effect. They can be found on the Department of Human Services website at the following links:

The ID/A waiver renewals submitted to CMS on April 1, 2022, are also available.

Additional changes will be made to the waiver renewals as a result of ongoing discussions with CMS. ODP will inform all stakeholders when the waiver renewals have been approved. The final approved versions of the waivers will be made available online at that time.

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

Upcoming Meeting of the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities
Thursday, July 28 | 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET
Register for the meeting.

About the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities:

Initially established in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the PCPID advises the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services on a broad range of topics that impact people with intellectual disabilities, as well as the professional fields that support people with intellectual disabilities and their families. Its goal is to improve the quality of life experienced by people with intellectual disabilities by upholding their full citizenship rights, independence, self-determination, and lifelong participation in their communities.

The President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities (PCPID) will host a virtual meeting for its members to identify emerging topics to examine in the Committee’s Report to the President. All the PCPID meetings, in any format, are open to the public. This virtual meeting will be conducted in a presentation and discussion format. View more details published in the Federal Register notice.

Stakeholder input is very important to the PCPID. Comments and suggestions, especially from people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, are welcome at any time. If there are comments or feedback you would like to share with the PCPID as it begins to prioritize its work, please share them through this form. Comments received by June 30 will be shared with the PCPID at the July meeting. Comments received after June 30 will be compiled and shared with the PCPID quarterly.

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FDA Safety Advisory (Issued June 28, 2022): Do not use neck floats with babies for water therapy interventions, especially with babies who have developmental delays or special health care needs.

See the full FDA Communication here.

If you have any questions, please contact RCPA Children’s Policy Director Jim Sharp. Please share with those in your networks. Thank you.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced today it is extending its opioid treatment program (OTP) exemption for an in-person physical evaluation for buprenorphine treatment for a period of one year from the end of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). The extension goes into effect upon the expiration of the COVID-19 PHE.

Read the full announcement.

The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) will be presenting a live, interactive webinar series on housing issues. This five-session series will be offered twice (see schedule below). The webinars will include targeted content, including question and answer (Q&A) sessions with housing experts and OLTL staff. Each session is scheduled for 90 minutes to allow for interaction and Q&A segments.

The webinar series targets Service Coordinators, Managed Care Organizations, and Service Coordination Entity support staff who assist program participants in securing and maintaining affordable, accessible housing. This series builds on information already provided in the Online Housing Training Modules and the Self-Determination Housing of Pennsylvania (SDHP)/Inglis’s Prepared Renter Program (PREP) curriculum.

This series of webinars is designed to be taken in order. The content in each session builds on prior content. Participants will get the most out of the program by taking all the sessions in order. Although individuals are not required to complete the sessions in order, to keep the sessions focused, the webinar leader may opt to table questions that were covered in prior sessions.

The series will be presented twice:

  • August 16 – September 13 (every Tuesday) from 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
  • September 21 – October 19 (every Wednesday) from 9:00 am – 10:30 am

2022 OLTL Housing Series Curriculum

Webinar 1: Understanding and Navigating Housing Nuances

  • 10 Housing-Sector Nuances
  • 3 Main Pathways to Housing Resources

Webinar 2: Recommended Relationships and Resources in the Housing Sector

  • 5 Key Partnerships to Cultivate
  • Top 6 Housing Resources

Webinar 3: Funding Sources and Clarifying Affordability Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  • 6 Kinds of Funding Sources
  • 3 Concepts to Understand About Affordability and Income-based Eligibility

Webinar 4: Legal Issues Related to Housing

  • Criminal Justice System Involvement
  • Fair Housing and Reasonable Accommodation

Webinar 5: Keeping Participants Housed and Landlord Engagement Techniques

  • 6 Key Concepts in Keeping Participants Housed
  • Landlord Engagement Techniques and Resources

To register for the Housing Webinar Series, please go to the OLTL Housing Webinars registration page.

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued updates associated with the inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) provider preview reports and the IRF Patient Assessment Instrument (PAI).

CMS has released the updated IRF Provider Preview Reports, which contain provider performance scores for quality measures and contain IRF-PAI data submitted by IRFs from Quarter 1 (Q1) 2021 through Quarter 4 (Q4) 2021, as well as CDC Clostridium Difficile (CDI) and Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) measures from Quarter 4 (Q4) 2020 through Quarter 3 (Q3) 2021, and Q4 2018 through Q1 2019 of the Healthcare Personnel (HCP) Influenza measure. The new HCP COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage measure will also be publicly reported on Care Compare in the September 2022 release and will reflect Q4 2021 data. Unlike prior September Care Compare refreshes, CMS will not be preforming the annual update to IRF claims-based measures, due to CMS only resuming the reporting of claims-based measures during the June 2022 refresh.

Providers have until July 15, 2022, to review their performance data. Providers can request CMS review their data during the preview period if they believe the scores are inaccurate. The final reports will be published on Care Compare and Provider Data Catalog during the September 2022 refresh of the website. Additional information is on the CMS IRF Quality Reporting Program (QRP) public reporting website.

CMS also published the IRF-PAI Quarterly Questions & Answers (Q&A) document that provides clarification to existing guidelines.