Post meeting update with Governor’s Office on Coronavirus

March 12, 2020

Good afternoon,

We just concluded a meeting with representatives from the Governor’s Office on the topic of Coronavirus and mental health/substance use disorder/addiction services during the crisis.

I’ll provide a more comprehensive discussion of the range of topics we covered During the meeting later but for now we wanted to share the main concerns (listed below) that we discussed:

(Just a partial list):

Need reimbursement guarantee and waiver to provide phone counseling/therapy in all programs

Fact that most clients do not have smart phones making Tele health etc an imperfect solution for many clients/providers.

Need immediate access to protective gear, health-related cleaning supplies, sanitizers, etc that are recommended for use during this crisis

Need funds to subsidize loss of client revenue and to ensure continued viability of our provider organizations during this crisis

Discussed our Inability to maintain our workforce given crisis level shortages (that existed before this emergency)  and that are now intensifying

Immediate need for waivers around staffing ratios and requirements (in some contracts) where provider is held to certain levels of service agreements.

Lack of clarity around what will happen to clients (*residential programs) if programs or whole agency needs to shut down.

Must be able to continue to provide access to care to include access to MAT and other life sustaining medications

Need guidance to be sent to plans from state regarding their responsibility to cover / reimburse care being provided at present via recent waivers

The good news is the Governor’s Office is in close touch with members of the NYS delegation in Washington and they have been working on getting permission from CMS for a waiver that would permit telephonic counseling/telephonic therapy care during this crisis.  They may have more information on this as soon as tomorrow.