Thanks to accessiBe, RCPA’s website is accessible to individuals with disabilities! Their accessibility tool is free to most nonprofits. It lets your end users tailor your websites for multiple different special needs, by selecting various settings for both accessibility and content. To see the options available, click or tap on the round accessibility widget in the bottom left corner of your screen!
ODP Announcement 22-098 is intended to provide additional clarification on combining partial units as it pertains to Personal Care and Home Health Care Services that are subject to electronic visit verification (EVV), i.e. Respite — unlicensed, Homemaker, Companion, In-Home and Community Supports and Community Supports, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech/Language Therapy, and Therapies — Counseling.
All Personal Care and Home Health Care services subject to EVV are permitted to bill units that are based on the total accumulated continuous or non-continuous service time across an individual calendar day or across multiple calendar days. The beginning and end date submitted on a claim detail line informs the system what date range it should look in for time in the EVV Aggregator for the same provider, individual, and service. Once all continuous or non-continuous service time in the aggregator is located, the system will total all the time found and use the total time to calculate units. The total calculated units in the EVV aggregator are then compared to the units submitted on the claim.
As long as the total calculated units found in the EVV aggregator is equal to or greater than the units submitted on the claim detail line, the claim will pass EVV validation and continue moving through the claims adjudication process, where it is subject to plan validation and additional Medical Assistance and ODP specific edits and audits in the Medicaid Management Information System (PROMISe).
Please note that the ODP EVV Technical Guide Version 2.0 is being updated to reflect this clarification about combining partial units for services subject to EVV.
For additional information about EVV, please view the DHS EVV website. Providers with additional questions regarding this matter should contact their respective ODP Regional Office.
A Better Understanding of Mental Health to Improve Systems and Supports
Articles in this issue of Positive Approaches focus on lived experiences and emerging treatments and supports for people with mental health challenges, including those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Article topics include the training process and outcomes of Mental Health First Aid, a Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) and Allegheny County DHS pilot program to better address the complex needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities, autism, and/or acute behavioral health needs, and an interview with a person with lived experience discussing the gaps, challenges, and opportunities of supporting someone with an autism spectrum diagnosis and co-occurring mental health diagnoses. There are also articles detailing the transition process from an institutionalized setting to a community setting and the outcomes for individuals with autism and drawing on research and lived experience to conclude that mental health conditions in autistic people are a result of the society in which they live with autism, not autism itself.
This issue of Positive Approaches Journal is in digital form, available for viewing online, or available for downloading here. To print a copy of the PDF, online journal, or a specific article, you will find these options within your left navigation bar on any Positive Approaches Journal page. A new window will open with your selected document. In your browser, you may click the Print button in the top left corner of the page, or by using the Print capability within your browser.
Please submit feedback regarding your experience with the Positive Approaches Journal on MyODP by clicking on the feedback image on MyODP within your left navigation bar on any Positive Approaches Journal page.
The Positive Approaches Journal is published quarterly. For additional information, please contact ODP Training.
ADvancing States and our partners with the ARPA HCBS Technical Assistance Collective are proud to release two papers that provide information about state efforts and activities under their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) HCBS spending plans. Through the generous support of The SCAN Foundation, The John A. Hartford Foundation, The Milbank Memorial Fund, and Arnold Ventures, the TA Collective operated two Affinity Groups (AG) to support states, facilitate information exchange, and share innovations, promising practices, and other strategies to expand and enhance their HCBS programs.
One AG focused on HCBS Workforce Shortages and state efforts to increase worker compensation and to improve training and education activities, while the other AG was dedicated to incorporating enabling technology into state HCBS programs. Each paper provides an overview of the issue, a summary of the discussions and ideas presented, examples of state innovations, and a discussion of future activities, challenges, and considerations as states continue to address these issues.
Visit here to read more.
RCPA members are invited to participate in two free webinars presented by Jeannine Pavlak from New England Business Associates. These webinars are available to us through the NEON grant, and are on topics requested by our members.
Please register for one or both using the links below.
The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) today released Information Bulletin 02-22: Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Records.
Act 33 of 2022 took effect immediately when Gov. Wolf signed it on July 7, 2022. Act 33 makes significant changes to the confidentiality provisions for substance use disorder (SUD) treatment records under Pennsylvania law and DDAP’s enforcement of those provisions. Act 33 amends the definitions, 71 P.S. § 1690.102, and the confidentiality provisions, 71 P.S. § 1690.108, of Act 63 of 1972, the Pennsylvania Drug and Alcohol Abuse Control Act.
Read the Information Bulletin.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) has launched a web page detailing the Behavioral Health Commission for Adult Mental Health. Among other information, the page includes a list of the 24 commissioners, dates for upcoming commission meetings (which are open to the public for both in-person and remote participation), and an email address for those interested in attending the meetings.
The commission will next meet at 1:00 pm, September 1, in Dauphin County at a location to be determined.
Act 54 of 2022 established the Behavioral Health Commission for Adult Mental Health as an interdisciplinary body comprised of leadership from state agencies, communities around Pennsylvania, and the behavioral health field as well as individuals with lived experience with behavioral health.
The legislature appropriated $100 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding for adult mental health programs. Per Act 54 of 2022, no funding shall be expended until enabling legislation is enacted by the General Assembly. The Commission shall produce a report with funding recommendations.
Prev