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COMPA
Advocacy
Overturns
Retroactive Portion of 2%
Medicaid Rate Reduction
In early November
the OTPs (OpioidTreatment Providers)
in New York State were notified by the New York State Department of
Health that
there would be a 2% reduction in their Medicaid rate and that such a
reduction
would be made retroactive to April 1, 2011.
Since the spring of this
year the provider community and
COMPA had been repeatedly told by OASAS senior staff that there would
be no
across the board Medicaid rate reductions for any OASAS licensed
outpatient
programs. Given these assurances (made
multiple times in multiple settings) we were completely surprised by
the
actions of the Department of Health to not only impose a cut of 2%, but
also to
do so retroactively to April 1st. Had
we known that such a cut was coming, we could
have taken steps to
try to reduce the negative impact this will have on our patients and
our
staffs. This surprise attack would have
made the impact all the more severe. The
lack of candor and transparency evidenced in
this action is far less
than we have come to expect from Governor Cuomo’s administration.
In a time of state fiscal
crisis no state funded entity can
expect to be completely exempt from cuts. But
given the extraordinary circumstances
surrounding this cut COMPA
strongly advocated for the elimination of the retroactive portion of
the 2%
reduction. After multiple meetings,
phone calls, and letters with various individuals in state government,
and
after helpful collaboration with our colleagues at ASAP and TCA, we
have
achieved a major rollback in this cut. The
state has agreed that the retroactive portion of
this cut (from
April 1, 2011 through November 30, 2011) will be completely eliminated. This reduces the
impact on the OTPs in New
York by more than two million dollars. Special
thanks must go to Commissioner Arlene
Gonzalez-Sanchez for
strongly intervening on our behalf to bring about this
resolution. Click
here to see a copy of
the Commissioner’s 12/2/11 letter on this issue.
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COMPA encourages
persons interested in knowing more about our history, mission, and
programs to contact us at:
911 Central Avenue, #322
Albany, NY 12206
518-326-6043
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