Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Today, OPWDD is pleased to announce the release of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for development of a statewide direct support professional marketing and recruitment campaign. As OPWDD and our non-profit service provider partners face ongoing staffing challenges, and New Yorkers with developmental disabilities feel the impact, OPWDD is mounting several initiatives to reverse the trend and ensure a strong, stable and high-quality workforce.

The competitive opportunity announced today will identify an experienced and qualified party to bring current market research to bear on our service system’s staffing challenges and develop an effective, attractive and recognizable statewide recruitment campaign. The campaign goals will be twofold – to promote the field of direct care for people with developmental disabilities as a rewarding and vital profession and to help all of New York’s developmental disabilities service providers to recruit quality candidates for their positions.

In today’s market, it is essential we reach new candidate pools with the information they need to understand the value of the OPWDD mission and the tremendous opportunity it presents for them to have a successful and fulfilling career. The statewide campaign will spotlight the kinds of programs and positions available within our service system and attract workers from new places in effective new ways.

I am excited about this opportunity, and I look forward to watching New Yorkers from Long Island to Buffalo learn about and respond to opportunities in what we know is a truly fulfilling field of work. As we advance statewide educational and training programs, establish pathways for DSPs to attain recognized credentials and continue to advocate for wages that reflect the value of the work, the recruitment and marketing campaign will provide marketing materials and a recognizable online hub to connect eager and interested people – the mission-focused people we need – to providers of supports and services.

The interactive website established as part of this marketing campaign will provide a central location where all service providers across the state can promote their organizations and employment opportunities free of charge. This one-stop website will allow job candidates to learn about the value and benefits of direct support employment and identify potential employers they can contact directly to learn about employment opportunities.

This initiative is one of many projects we have underway to strengthen our service system’s workforce. Our workforce initiatives, in turn, are a central part of OPWDD’s broad effort to enhance, improve and transform key aspects of the OPWDD service system as described in our 2023-2027 Strategic Plan. I hope you will read about our strategic goals and objectives, and I encourage you to follow our progress on all of these efforts and dialogue with us as together we work to make these important goals a reality for New Yorkers with developmental disabilities.

Sincerely,

Kerri E. Neifeld
Commissioner

Important Update: CCO/HH Consent Policy

Please find below a memo outlining an important consent policy update. The attached memo is being issued to help streamline and clarify the use of CCO/HH consent forms developed by New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) and to outline associated policy revisions.

Consent Policy Update Memo

Statement from Sen. John W. Mannion

NYDA 2024 Executive Budget Statement

Statement from the New York Disability Advocates on Governor Hochul 2024 Executive Budget

Earlier this month, Governor Hochul outlined her administrations’ vision of the “New York Dream”, a government that will uplift all New Yorkers. Unfortunately, with the release of the Executive Budget today, the “New York dream” for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and the individuals that provide life supporting services to them is not fully realized.

Governor Hochul’s inclusion of a 2.5 % Cost-Of-Living-Adjustment (COLA) as part of the Executive Budget, simply does not provide the necessary resources to keep pace with the growing cost of providing services to people with developmental disabilities after a decade of cuts and lack of investment in these services.

OPWDD’s own Strategic Plan, published in November, articulates Goal #1 as, “Improve the recruitment, retention and quality of the direct support workforce,” by “investing in the workforce.” The system faces “a 35.6% turnover rate in the voluntary DSP workforce, a vacancy rate of 17.2% for full time positions, and a vacancy rate of 21.3% for part-time positions.”

An adequate COLA increase is critical to address workforce turnover and increased operational costs. The Governor’s proposal to fund a COLA at 6% less than the system needs to sustain the status quo means that OPWDD will have some difficult decisions to make about where cuts to service delivery will happen for the 130,000 New Yorkers with I/DD and their families that rely upon them.

With today’s announcement, we once again face the stark reality that nonprofit provider agencies for the I/DD community are overlooked and underfunded especially, considering OPWDD increased starting wages for their own workforce by 13%, who provide the same supports and services.

Equity and support for all must make its way into the Governor’s and the Division of Budget’s dream for New York. Without that equity and support from our elected officials the New York Dream becomes a nightmare for the people with disabilities and their families, who are unable to get the resources they need to live their best lives.

There are currently hundreds of people with I/DD waiting in hospitals, nursing homes, and psychiatric centers due to insufficient capacity in the OPWDD system. There are thousands more living at home with their aging caregivers who want to live independently with supports from OPWDD. This cannot be part of the New York Dream that Governor Hochul envisioned.

New York lawmakers have a duty to serve all their residents, especially those who rely on them the most. We must work together to ensure that the I/DD community receives the proper recognition and resources it needs to build a sustainable future for the thousands of New Yorkers who need it.

We are urging both houses of the New York Legislature to include an 8.5% Cost-Of-Living-Adjustment (COLA), as well as the establishment of a Direct Support Wage Enhancement (DSWE) to increase hourly pay for Direct Support workers in their respective one-house budgets. The fate of the I/DD community depends on it.

Governor Hochul’s 2023-2024 State Budget Proposal

Governor Hochul presented her 2023-2024 budget proposal today in the Red Room of the State Capitol. Disability advocates were extremely disappointed that the Governor’s commitment “to serve all New Yorkers” and that this budget proposal “will do the hard things to lift up and support all New Yorkers” did not include New Yorkers with developmental disabilities, their families and the hardworking staff who support them.

Governor Hochul’s 2023-2024 (SFY ’24) budget totals $227 billion all funds spending (2.4% increase) and $125 billion state funds (2% increase) which includes:

$34.5 Billion in public education funding (a $3.1billion/10% increase) including a $2.7 billion/12.8% Foundation Aid increase.
5% rate increase for hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living rates.
$24 billion in raining day reserves will be completed by the end of the current year — two years ahead of schedule.
$1 billion multi-year investment to transform New York’s mental health care continuum
$337 million for programs designed to prevent and reduce gun violence
$400 million to provide relief to New Yorkers experiencing high electric bills as well as lowering energy burdens through electrifications and retrofits.
Expands Medicaid coverage for 7.8 million low-income New Yorkers

Below are highlights of interest, to CP State Affiliates, from a quick look at the budget. We will provide further details as we read all the budget bill language.

OPWDD

NYDA and all the disability advocates have been urging the Governor to include an 8.5% COLA & a $4,000 wage enhancement. Unfortunately, the Governor’s budget included:

A 2.5% COLA for OPWDD, OMH, OASAS, OCFS, OTDA & SOFA
$0 wage enhancement
$2 million to establish a Statewide Ombudsman Program for individuals with developmental disabilities to “provide an independent advocate for individuals who are not able to speak for themselves and provide training and support to those who can make their own decisions to help them achieve greater independence.”
$11.7 million capital funding to develop Intensive Treatment Opportunity (ITO) Capacity units at the former Finger Lakes Developmental Center campus.
IBR Study -A two-year Independent Study on the Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities (IBR).
An additional $15 Million to Develop Housing and expand independent living opportunities for individuals with IDD.
Flexibilities for Delegated Nursing Tasks – legislation to allow greater flexibility for the performance of certain nursing tasks by unlicensed employees in non-certified community-based settings.

SED

The Governor’s budget proposal includes a $3.1/10% billion overall increase and $2.7 billion/12.8% Foundation aid increase.

Zero growth or COLA was included for our schools, however, other than last year, our school’s growth has not been in the budget but has always been in the April 15 methodology letter.
$2.5 million for a rate setting study by SED to be presented to the Division of Budget by 7/1/2025

DOH

Zero Early Intervention increase
Zero clinic increase
$500 million in multi-year health care capital funding to drive transformative investment that support the State’s health care investments.
$500 million in multi-year capital grants to support investments in technological investment upgrades, including clinical tech and cybersecurity.
$967 million to complete consolidation of Wadsworth Laboratories’ five unconnected sites to one site on the W. Averell Harriman Campus in Albany by 2030.
$100 million to expand Medicaid coverage of preventative health services and access to primary care.
$157 million in New York State’s nursing homes and $9 million in New York’s assisted living providers to meet the staffing requirements
$60 million beginning in FY 2025 to expand the Medicaid Buy-In program so more New Yorkers with disabilities can work and still qualify for coverage.

OMH

A long-term, multi-year $1 billion investment to transform New York’s continuum of mental health care including:

$915 million in capital to develop new residential units, plus $127 million in annual operating costs.
$18 million in capital and $30 million annually to increase operational capacity for inpatient psychiatric treatment.
$60 million in capital and $122 million annually to expand outpatient services.
$27.5 million annually to improve post-discharge connections to services through the creation of 50 new Critical Time Intervention care coordination teams.
$30 million annually to expand mental health services in schools.

Barbara

Barbara Crosier

Vice President, Advocacy & Government Relations

Cerebral Palsy Associations of NYS

3 Cedar Street Extension, Suite 2

Cohoes, NY 12047

Phone: (518) 436-0178

Cell: (518) 424-3198

Fax: (518) 436-8619

E-mail: bcrosier@cpstate.org

JUSTICE CENTER SUMMIT

SAVE THE DATES

April 18 – 19 and 25 – 26

2023 Justice Center Summit

The Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs (Justice Center) announces it will be hosting the Justice Center Summit in April 2023. The event features several individual sessions covering policy updates, trends, prevention materials, and investigative tools. In addition, in-depth sessions on a variety of Justice Center programs will be available. The event is targeted for provider agencies under the jurisdiction of the Justice Center, individuals receiving services, families, peer advocates and other interested stakeholders.

Click here for a summary of the session topics.

This summit will be conducted over four dates in April, 2023. There are two sessions per day and each session will last approximately 1.5 hours. You may register for one or all of the sessions. There is no charge to attend.

Tuesday, April 18
Session 1 – 10:30 am: Updates from the Justice Center
Session 2 – 2:30 pm: Overview of Pre-Employment Checks for Service Providers

Wednesday, April 19
Session 3 – 10:30 am: Technology Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities (TRAID)
Session 4 – 2:30 pm: Overview of the Surrogate Decision-Making Committee

Tuesday, April 25
Session 5 – 10:30 am: Lifecycle of a Justice Center Case
Session 6 – 2:30 pm: Justice Center Spotlight on Prevention: Best Practices for Responding to Medical Emergencies

Wednesday, April 26
Session 7 – 10:30 am: Overview of the Justice Center’s Individual and Family Support Services
Session 8 – 2:30 pm: Investigating Injuries of Unknown Origin

Register

Click on the Register button to sign up for individual sessions or all 8 sessions. Zoom links will be emailed prior to each session.

If you wish to request a reasonable accommodation to participate in any of these sessions, please contact Justice Center Training at jctraining@justicecenter.ny.gov.

Questions about registration? Contact WRI at info@wrisolutions.org

www.justicecenter.ny.gov

Life Plan Slide Presentation

Attached is a Life Plan Presentation give at our recent general membership meeting on 1/17/23 by Danielle Mazza, Assistant Vice President of Care Management of Care Design NY. Hopefully it will give everyone a better understanding of the process.

lp-presentation-enydda Download

Opposition to Managed Care

January 2023

Dear Governor Hochul,

Happy New Year! We welcome in the New Year with renewed hope for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) and their families. Our independent family and self-advocacy organizations continue to oppose Managed Care support services for people with I/DD, and are against extending NYS legislative authorization to continue further exploration when it expires this year. The effort to pursue Managed Care for I/DD support services has already been extended for more than a decade. We believe that too much time and money has already been wasted. Extending the authorization will only result in delaying any effort to implement other needed changes to the service system.

In November of 2022, OPWDD awarded a $1.44 million consulting contract “to study and evaluate how the implementation of managed care would assist in improving Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS) for people with I/DD.” Previous studies to determine the effects of Managed Care for I/DD services show no evidence of cost benefit, improved access to services or quality of care in states that have attempted to transition.

A 2019 study funded by the Texas Legislature concluded: “While there are savings achieved on Long Term Services and Support claims, the amount of increased administrative expenditures outweighs savings from claims” (www.tinyurl.com/TX-IDD-Deloitte-Report )
The Medicaid and Chip Payment and Access Commission, a non-partisan group of experts concluded in 2021: “While much research has been conducted on whether Managed Care delivery systems result in better outcomes than fee for service (FFS), there is no definitive conclusion as to whether managed care improves or worsens access to or quality of care for beneficiaries www.macpac.gov/subtopic/managed-cares-effect-on-outcomes )

Even more disconcerting is a NYS funded study by Deloitte that estimates the cost for initial implementation of Managed Care for I/DD services would be $200 million and would result in a similar increase in annual administrative costs.

The money spent on studying managed care over the last decade might have been put to better use serving the needs of people with I/DD and the workforce supporting them. Given the urgency of stabilizing and improving the workforce, increasing residential options, improving access and diversity as laid out in OPWDD’s Strategic Plan, this continued distraction over managed care comes with the even greater cost of failing to take needed action to implement these goals. Please let the authorization to explore Managed Care expire so that stakeholders can immediately get to work accelerating changes that have a meaningful and positive impact on people’s lives.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of Families and Self-Advocates Representing People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities across New York State

CC: Dr. James V. McDonald, Acting Commissioner Department of Health

Kerri Neifeld, Office for People With Developmental Disabilities

Jihoon Kim, Deputy Secretary for Human Services and Mental Hygiene

Kim Hill, Chief Disability Officer

Kathryn Garcia, Director of State Operations

Sandra L. Beattie, Division of Budget

Senate and Assembly Disability Committee Chairs

Senate Majority Leader

Assembly Speaker

Senate and Assembly Legislators

Author: enydda

Myths of Managed Care letter #4

OPWDD Announces Request for DSP Marketing and Recruitment Campaign