The Department of Human Services (DHS) and Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID) are taking efforts to ensure the Autism Insurance Act (Act 62) is fully implemented, and its goal of Medicaid cost reduction is achieved.
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The Department of Human Services (DHS) and Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID) are taking efforts to ensure the Autism Insurance Act (Act 62) is fully implemented, and its goal of Medicaid cost reduction is achieved.
This week the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) announced several new initiatives to reduce the use of psychotropic medication among our state’s most vulnerable children. Speaking at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, DHS Secretary Ted Dallas reported on the partnership of DHS with the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society. A state-commissioned PolicyLab study that found that in 2012 in Pennsylvania, the use of psychotropic medications was nearly three times higher among 6-18 year olds in foster care than among youth in Medicaid overall. Based on this study and the collaborative effort mentioned above, Pennsylvania has initiated the following:
“The inappropriate use of these powerful medications for children in the foster care system compounds the trauma experienced by children who have been the victim of abuse and neglect and is simply unacceptable,” Dallas said, “The recommendations and analysis from PolicyLab provide Pennsylvania with an invaluable roadmap to improve the safety and quality of life for foster children served by the Medicaid system.”
RCPA is proud to announce that Rep. Dan Miller will be holding his Third Annual Disability and Mental Health Summit.
RCPA has been advocating for years for significant changes to the Mental Health Outpatient regulations to help to protect and strengthen mental health outpatient services in Pennsylvania. In 2010, RCPA developed a position paper outlining the major problems in this area. In response to this crisis, the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) developed a task force to work on regulation changes. The task force was a broad range of stakeholders which included consumers, counties, providers, and behavioral health managed care organizations. The task force worked for several years to develop a new set of regulations intended to protect and strengthen mental health outpatient services. The job of the task force was complete in 2014 and OMHSAS submitted the revised regulations to internal sources for approval. From beginning to now, it has been six years since we requested help. OMHSAS responded with strong support but the regulations have been held up in various areas of the department and the administration.
We received the following email today from Jean Rush, who has been the lead at OMHSAS since the beginning of the project:
“I wanted to share the current status of the OP regulation package since we drafted the revisions. With the expansion of Medicaid, the department has made changes to our State Plan Amendments for compliance with ACA which have been approved by CMS. This will require some minimal changes to the OP regulation package which were not an issue during our work.
OMHSAS will be making the minimal changes to the regulation package in conjunction with the Office of Medical Assistance Programs (OMAP) as the Medicaid Authority for the Commonwealth, as well as our Office of Legal Counsel.
The changes will not impact your recommendations but are necessary for compliance and the ability to complete the IRRC review. We will share the changes with you via email and if there are any areas where input is needed, I will be contacting you to schedule a call to discuss.
We appreciate all of the time and dedication to this project and will continue to work on making the changes to move this regulation package to completion. It is still a priority for the department.”
RCPA is hopeful that a resolution is forthcoming and will keep you all posted.
The Department of Human Services/Bureau of Adult Protective Services is offering trainings/webinars for Adult Protective Services.
Complete online registration at the Survey Monkey LINK below.
Please feel free to share this information with other staff and providers.
With new webinar software we have twice as many logins available and will hopefully be able to accommodate all requests.
Adult Protective Services and Mandatory Reporting Requirements
How: Webinar and In-Person Attendance available
Where: Clothes Tree Building, DGS Complex (former Harrisburg State Hospital Campus)
What: Overview of Act 70, Adult Protective Services Law, eligibility criteria, DHS and Liberty Healthcare Responsibilities; the process for reporting, mandatory reporting requirements, and statutory definitions.
When:
Complete the online registration survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DHS_APS_Training
Information and webinar link will be sent prior to the presentation. Contact Deborah Bender at debbender@pa.gov with any questions or concerns.
The Physical Health Managed Care Organizations (PH-MCOs) serving Pennsylvania’s HealthChoices Medicaid program are now inviting psychiatric service providers to submit a response for the Telephonic Psychiatric Service (TiPS) Request for Proposals (RFP). The PH-MCOs will contract for TiPS that will provide real time telephonic consultative services to primary care providers (PCPs), and other prescribers of psychotropic medications, for children under the age of 21. A TiPS provider is responsible for establishing and maintaining a team of behavioral health professionals who will be available to respond to inquiries from PCPs seeking assistance in providing pediatric behavioral health care. Qualified applicants must have a TiPS staff which includes one full-time equivalent child psychiatrist, one full-time equivalent behavioral health therapist, and one full-time equivalent care coordinator. Now available are the RFP, and supplemental information, including pediatric membership by plan/zone, and a 2014 Health Affairs article on a similar program in Massachusetts. A vendor fair for interested respondents is being held on Tuesday, January 26 in Mechanicsburg. See the RFP for additional details. All questions should be directed to MCO Coalition Consultant, Emily Katz.
As previously reported, the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS) is conducting work groups to develop recommendations for the development of youth-young adult peer support services and for youth-young adult psychiatric rehabilitation services. RCPA is participating in both work groups through the involvement of the Directors of the Children’s Division and the Mental Health Division. In January, RCPA will be scheduling a focused conference call with members providing Medicaid-funded peer support service, psychiatric rehabilitation services, and adolescent-young adult mental health services. The purpose of the conference call will be to review the status of the OMHSAS work groups and to gather input from the field with regard to service design, the development of service, supervision and program description standards/regulatory changes, and to better understand the operational and clinical care, cost, and compliance implications for these services.
The Bureau of Autism Services (BAS) is conducting a preliminary survey to help inform the design of services for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who are transitioning out of high school, including those who may have had justice intersections or psychiatric hospitalizations. This survey is designed to be completed by professionals with or without experience supporting individuals with ASD ages 18-25. BAS is asking for feedback on both surveys by Friday, January 1.
BAS has developed two versions of this survey; one for individuals and families, and another to be completed by professionals. The professionals survey can be completed here. Any questions about these surveys can be directed to the Bureau of Autism Services via email.
Time is running out; the deadline for revalidating is Thursday, March 24, 2016. Numerous RCPA members have already gone through this process, but it appears that large numbers of providers have not yet done so. A special provider revalidation webinar will be held by RCPA on Wednesday, January 6 at 10:00 am. Jamie Buchenauer, from the Department of Human Services, will be presenting the webcast.
This article from Capitolwire is a good and extensive overview of what is going on with the budget here in Harrisburg. Health and Human service budget line items are still fluid until the House and Senate negotiate a final budget deal. RCPA will provide updates on any budget deal, and RCPA encourages members to continue to contact the governor and state legislators to inform them why it’s necessary for them to pass a state budget sooner rather than later. Questions, contact Jack Phillips.