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In early December, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) Model Evaluation Report. This report provides the results for the first year of the CJR model extension (performance year six) after significant changes to the CJR model were implemented. According to CMS, the revisions to the CJR model generated net savings of $54.2 million for Medicare in performance year six while maintaining the quality of care for patients.

The Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) announced an investment of nearly $20 million for 12 Pennsylvania organizations to expand drop-in center services for individuals with substance use disorders (SUD) across Pennsylvania. Funding for these grants is provided, in part, from the portion of opioid settlement funding that was appropriated to DDAP by the General Assembly for the 2023/24 fiscal year.

All awardees have at least two years of experience providing SUD prevention, intervention, harm reduction, treatment, recovery support services, drop-in center services, and/or relevant services, and have the capacity to provide drop-in center services to individuals with opioid use disorder and other SUDs. In addition, these grants are also designed to support the delivery of services to address stimulant misuse and use disorders, including cocaine and methamphetamines. DDAP is awarding 12 grants of up to $1,875,000 each for a 29-month period from February 1, 2025 through June 30, 2027.

Read the full press release here.

Please reach out to RCPA SUD Policy Director Jason Snyder with any questions.

The Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) has published a survey titled “Family Members Training Needs” to hear about the training and educational needs of family members or significant others whose loved one may be struggling with drug or alcohol use, receiving substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, or in recovery. DDAP is also seeking to learn more about how to improve the navigation of the SUD services system. The survey should be completed no later than January 6, 2025.

DDAP encourages both those who have someone close to them struggling with SUD and those who do not have someone close to them but who are interested in learning more about educational opportunities to complete the survey.

ODP staff provided updates today on the implementation of Performance-Based Contracting (PBC) in Residential programs. ODP is currently making adjustment to the scoring tool for use in February/March for submitting data for tier determinations. All Residential providers who did not previously submit their data must complete the scoring tool using their calendar year 2024 data in February/March of 2025.

ODP will rerun the data for those providers who previously submitted data since some of the measures have been adapted. Those providers will not need to resubmit their information but will be automatically be re-evaluated in case these changes may impact their tier assignment.

In coordination with the rebalancing of Incident Management policies, some changes will be made to the IM measures. ODP is offering helpful resources to assist providers. Please see the PowerPoint from the forum for links to these resources. Also, up-to-date information can be found at MyODP’s website.

ODP intends to publish the updated scoring tool mid-January 2025 as a PDF for providers to review and begin preparing their data. RCPA will share that tool as soon as it is available.

Happy Winter! Please share these important workshops and Good Life Groups with your network! Register for upcoming events at PA Family Network’s website.

LifeCourse Workshops

Support Groups

The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) contracts with Temple University Harrisburg to deliver the ODP Certified Investigator (CI) Program. ODP and Temple University have developed and released new online optional lessons, which are designed to enhance investigatory skills and be helpful resources to CIs, Administrative Review Committee members, CI Peer Reviewers, Incident Management (IM) Reps, and others involved in the incident investigation process.

Learn more about the “Additional Learning Opportunities” web page and new online lessons under “Communication Considerations and Being Trauma Informed” in ODP Announcement 24-122.