Here are some initial impressions from the Senate budget proposal for FY 2015-16. We’re particularly pleased about the crisis intervention, adult home, prescriber prevails, veteran’s mental health initiatives and disturbed about the rejection of the Community First Choice reinvestment and advance home health aide proposals. More details as we get them…
OFFICE OF MENTAL HEALTH
- Denies Executive recommendation to reduce state hospital beds, providing $8.1 million to ‘buy that back’
- Provide $500,000 for a housing waiting list
- Extends rate protections for behavioral health essential providers
- Provides funding for:
- $2.3 million for veteran’s mental health initiatives
- $1.2 million for unspecified mental hygiene initiatives
- $1.9 million for veteran peer to peer pilot programs
- $400,000 for crisis intervention
- $100,000 for the Mental Health Association in New York State
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
- Adult Home related issues: restores the Enhancing the Quality of Adult Living (EQUAL) program at $6.5 million; supports a $38 million allocation to transition an estimated 2,000 residents to supported apartments.
- Restore Prescriber Prevails program at $1.3 million and expands these provisions to all drug classes under managed care
- Rejects Administration proposal to reinvest any savings from the Community First Choice option program to the implementation of the Olmstead plan and rejects creation of advanced home health aides via an exemption to the Nurse Practice Act
- Rejects the Executive proposal to require Value Based Payments within the DSRIP program and commercial marketplace
- Permanently carves out behavioral health services provided at school based health centers from managed care
- Requires that 40% of Vital Access Providers be from upstate
- Modifies the Capital Restructuring Financing program ($1.4 billion bank settlement funds) to be used for capital and certain non-capital projects, DSRIP initiatives and the establishment of an all payer database within DOH
- Allocates overall Capital projects as follows:
- No more than $1 billion for NYC
- No more than $300 million for Oneida County
- No more than $400 million for rural hospitals