Governor Shapiro has signed a proclamation to signify March 2025 as Brain Injury Awareness Month. Members are encouraged to share this proclamation or post it within their organizations so clients and families can be aware of this event.
Message from Representative Dan Miller’s Office:
Supporting and defending Medicaid funding to our Commonwealth has always been a top priority of mine, and this week we’re having a press conference to discuss the potential impact that Federal cuts to Medicaid may have on our most vulnerable populations.
Joining me will be U.S. Reps. Chris Deluzio and Summer Lee, other state lawmakers, and Allegheny County officials to highlight why defending Medicaid is imperative. We will also hear from self-advocates who would be directly impacted by Medicaid changes.
The loss of Federal funding to states would be devasting for the more than 3 million Pennsylvanians who are enrolled in Medicaid. Medicaid also pays for 30% of Medicare. Those that depend on its supports and services, include:
The news conference will be held at 10:15 am Friday, February 28, at the Portico of the City-County Building, 414 Grant St., Pittsburgh.
We’ll also be joined by state Reps. Dan Frankel, Emily Kinkead, Jess Benham, Lindsay Powell, Aerion Abney, La’Tasha D. Mayes and Arvind Venkat; state Sens. Jay Costa, Wayne Fontana, Lindsey Williams and Nick Pisciottano; Mayor Ed Gainey; Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor; Pittsburgh Councilwoman Erika Strassburger; and the offices of County Executive Sara Innamorato and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman.
There is a lot to be discussed, and everyone is welcome to join us this Friday at 10:15 am at the Portico of the City-County Building located at 414 Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh.
As always, if you have questions about this event or any state-related matter, please contact our office at 412-343-3870 or [email protected].
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Monday, March 3, 2025
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST; 11:00 am – 12:00 pm CST;
10:00 am – 11:00 am MST; 9:00 am – 10:00 am PST
Register Here
Tiffany Prince-Kandrakota, PT, DPT, MSHQS
Presenter Bio:
Tiffany Prince-Kandrakota is a physical therapist with more than 20 years of experience. Her career has included clinical work as well as progressive leadership responsibilities in multiple large health systems in the Philadelphia area. In this time, she found a passion for the quality of the care that was being provided, which drove her to return to school for a Masters in Healthcare Quality and Safety. She currently works as the Rehabilitation Quality Improvement Coordinator at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Objectives: At the end of this session, the learner will:
Audience: This webinar is intended for all interested members of the rehabilitation team.
Level: Beginner-Intermediate
Certificate of Attendance: Certificates of attendance are available for all attendees. No CEs are provided for this course.
Complimentary webinars are a benefit of membership in IPRC/RCPA. Registration fee for non-members is $179. Not a member yet? Consider joining today.
This Drexel University training will be held March 20, 2025, from 9:00 am – 3:30 pm, and will take place at the Holiday Inn Grantville. The training fee is $15 to attend and $45 for CEs/attendance. The course will be led by Chris Owens, MA, LPC, CCTP.
This course focuses on specific interventions of use to the professional helper when providing therapeutic services in behavioral healthcare. The aim of this workshop is to add to the helper’s “bag of tricks” or “toolkit” pertaining to assisting people with histories of trauma. Participants engage in didactic and experiential learning related to several specific interventions geared toward managing and moving beyond trauma. Participants also dialogue in small groups to share creative and effective interventions they have used in their various practice settings.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of this training, participants will be able to:
CE Credits:
Please visit here for additional information.
This is a reminder that the Call for Proposals for the 2025 RCPA Annual Conference Striving to Thrive will be closing Friday, March 14. Striving to Thrive will be held September 9 – 12 at the Hershey Lodge for a statewide audience, and the Conference Committee is seeking workshop proposals in every area for possible inclusion, particularly those that assist providers in developing and maintaining high-quality, stable, and effective treatments, services, and agencies in an industry where change is constant. The committee looks for presentations that:
The committee welcomes any proposal that addresses these and other topics essential to rehabilitation, mental health, substance use disorder, children’s health, aging, physical disabilities, and intellectual/developmental disabilities & autism.
Members are encouraged to consider submitting, and we highly encourage you to forward this opportunity to those who are exceptionally good speakers and have state-of-the-art information to share.
The Call for Proposals (featuring a complete listing of focus tracks) and accompanying Guidelines for Developing Educational Objectives detail requirements for submissions. The deadline for submissions is Friday, March 14, 2025, at 5:00 pm. Proposals must be submitted electronically on the form provided; confirmation of receipt will be sent. Proposals submitted after the deadline may not be considered.
If the proposal is accepted, individuals must be prepared to present on any day of the conference. Workshops are 90 or 180 minutes in length. At the time of acceptance, presenters will be required to confirm the ability to submit workshop handouts electronically two weeks prior to the conference. Individuals unable to meet this expectation should not submit proposals for consideration.
Individuals are welcome to submit multiple proposals. Notification of inclusion for the conference will be made via email by Friday, May 9, 2025. Questions may be directed to Carol Ferenz, Conference Coordinator.
The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) released the rate study that was commissioned last August after RCPA and other industry associations collaborated to access the information needed to establish rates for services.
For background purposes, HCBS are offered through Medicaid as an alternative to facility or institutional care. Reimbursement rates for these programs are set by DHS and are informed by an actuarial rate setting process and a public comment process. Long-term services and supports (LTSS) help older Pennsylvanians and adults with physical disabilities.
The rate study revealed the need for substantial and immediate rate increases for the services which were evaluated. The study concluded, “Given the comparisons to benchmark rates, it appears that revisions to the rates studied for this report would be appropriate. The tables below show detailed results from the benchmark rate comparison.” The specific rate gaps were:
Findings of the study are used to inform the Commonwealth’s budget and future rate setting processes. View the results here.
If you have any questions, please contact Fady Sahhar or Melissa Dehoff.
Secretary Val Arkoosh and leadership from the Department of Human Services (DHS) hosted a webinar to discuss the proposed 2025/26 budget for the Department on Friday, February 7, 2025.
The recording is available here, and the PowerPoint has been made available.
RCPA will continue to update members on the budget as information becomes available. If you have further questions, please contact your RCPA Policy Director.
March 13, 2025
1:00 pm EST
Register Here
Greenspace Health, in partnership with Project HEAL, a nonprofit organization in the U.S. focused on equitable treatment access for eating disorders, are co-presenting an educational webinar. This unique session, moderated by Carsen Rhys Beckwith, Program Director at Project HEAL, will bring together a panel of experts in both Measurement-Based Care (MBC) and eating disorder treatment.
Greenspace’s Chief Growth Officer, Jesse Hayman, and Dr. Wendy Oliver Pyatt, Co-founder, CEO and Chief Medical Officer at Within Health and CEO and Co-founder at Galen Hope, will share how MBC fosters meaningful collaboration in eating disorder treatment, supports personalized interventions, and ultimately improves outcomes for people in care.
Don’t miss this opportunity to uncover the impact of MBC in eating disorder treatment, with a focus on driving equity and practical strategies for implementation.
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