Breaking: NYS Receives CMS Approval to Implement CORE Services
NYAPRS Note: Great news! Medicaid reimbursed community based recovery services that include psychiatric rehabilitation and peer support will be much more quickly accessible via a new Community Oriented Recovery and Empowerment (CORE) Services design than the current HCBS initiative. We believe that the CORE initiative will take effect in early spring. Congratulations to the NYS Office of Mental Health for their efforts in crafting and winning approval of this landmark measure.
Attn: Adult Behavioral Health Home and Community Based Services (BH HCBS) Providers, Health Homes and Care Management Agencies (CMA)
New York State (NYS) is excited to announce the approval of Community Oriented Recovery and Empowerment (CORE) Services. On October 5, 2021, NYS received approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to transition four Adult Behavioral Health Home and Community Based Services (BH HCBS) to a new service array called CORE Services. CORE Services will be available in the Health and Recovery Plan (HARP) and HIV Special Needs Plan (HIV SNP) benefit packages.
NYS will provide adequate notice prior to CORE Services go-live. Additional details and guidance regarding the CORE Services implementation will be released in October 2021.
The following Adult BH HCBS will transition to CORE Services:
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Community Psychiatric Support and Treatment (CPST)
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Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR)
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Empowerment Services – Peer Support
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Family Support and Training (FST)
The remaining Adult BH HCBS will continue to be available in the HARP and HIV SNP benefit packages:
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Habilitation
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Education Support Services
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Prevocational Services
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Transitional Employment
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Intensive Supported Employment
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Ongoing Supported Employment
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Non-Medical Transportation
Adult BH HCBS Short-term Crisis Respite and Intensive Crisis Respite services will transition to Crisis Residence services, which are a part of the Crisis Intervention Benefit and already available to all adult Medicaid Managed Care enrollees.
A CORE Implementation Webinar Series will be provided by MCTAC and available to CORE Service providers and Health Homes/Care Management Agencies serving HARP and/or HIV SNP members. Training announcements will be distributed via MCTAC and the Adult BH HCBS Listserv.
Technical Assistance
OMH and OASAS will provide technical assistance to providers throughout the transition. Questions and requests for support may be sent via email to the appropriate host agency:
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For OMH-Hosted Providers: Adult-BH-HCBS@omh.ny.gov
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For OASAS-Hosted Providers: PICM@oasas.ny.gov
We would like to thank Adult BH HCBS providers for their patience and invaluable feedback provided during this process.