[NYAPRS Enews] SHNNY: MRT Passes Supportive Housing Recommendations

[Harvey Rosenthal]

Governor Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team Votes to Accept Recommendations
of the MRT Affordable Housing Workgroup

By Maclain Berhaupt Supportive Housing Network of NY December 13, 2011

In its final meeting today, Governor Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team
voted unanimously to accept the report and recommendations of the MRT's
Affordable Housing Workgroup.  While much will depend on whether and how
these recommendations are implemented over the next year, the
workgroup's report is likely to lay the foundation for a significant
expansion of supportive housing production in New York State.

 

"The recommendations included in the MRT Affordable Housing Workgroup's
report set the State firmly on the path of greatly expanding access to
supportive housing for vulnerable people who are high-cost users of
inpatient and emergency Medicaid services," said Ted Houghton, Executive
Director of the Supportive Housing Network of New York. "When put into
place, these actions will yield substantial taxpayer savings, while
improving the quality of life for thousands of New Yorkers with
behavioral health issues and chronic conditions.  We applaud the
Governor and his staff for their visionary leadership on this issue."

 

At the beginning of this year, Governor Cuomo established a Medicaid
Redesign Team (MRT) to devise a comprehensive strategy to reduce costs
and improve care in New York State's Medicaid program.  The MRT focused
much of its attention on the 20% of high-need Medicaid recipients who
use up to 75% of all Medicaid spending.  From the first meetings of the
MRT, many Network members and other stakeholders testified about the
central importance of stable housing and community-based supports to the
successful treatment and management of mental illness, substance abuse
and chronic medical conditions.  As a result, the MRT established an
Affordable Housing Workgroup to address housing and related issues in
the context of Medicaid.  

 

The workgroup's charge was to evaluate the state's supportive housing
portfolio, identify barriers to the efficient use of available resources
for the development and utilization of supportive housing, and make
recommendations intended to overcome those barriers.  In addition, the
workgroup was asked to identify opportunities for investment of
additional resources for expanding supportive housing that would result
in savings to the Medicaid program.

 

In less than two months, the workgroup was able to accomplish these
objectives by finalizing a list of recommendations to submit to the
Medicaid Redesign Team at its final meeting today.  Some of the
recommendations approved by the MRT include:

*	Develop a "NY/NY IV" supportive housing development agreement
with New York City and other interested localities that will create
thousands of new supportive housing units targeting high-cost, high need
users of Medicaid; 
*	Establish a formal mechanism to set aside a portion of Medicaid
and non-Medicaid savings related to any reduction of inpatient hospital,
psychiatric center or nursing home capacity to a fund dedicated to
supportive housing development;  
*	Unfreeze the NYS Office of Mental Health's capital and operating
funding for supportive housing and allow it to be spent in the coming
fiscal year on new development; 
*	Transfer a substantial portion of $75 million in new capital and
rent subsidy funds to OTDA, HHAP, HCR and OMH to develop new supportive
housing units beginning in FY12-13;
*	Include funding for ongoing housing-based services and operating
costs in the MRT 1115 Medicaid waiver to be submitted by the State to
the U. S. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services in 2012; 
*	Implement a series of specific reforms to the Assisted Living
Program that will increase provider flexibility and effectiveness;
*	Establish an interagency council of state agency representatives
to coordinate and implement supportive housing policy;  and
*	Develop working groups to streamline the capital development
process, improve housing placement and prioritization procedures, and
create mechanisms for supportive housing tenants to move to more
independent housing.  

 

The entire report and recommendations approved by the MRT can be found
here. <http://shnny.org/images/uploads/MRT-Final-Recommendations.pdf>  

 

The Affordable Housing Workgroup was just one of ten subcommittees
submitting reports to the MRT.  Its recommendations reflected a broad
consensus of the 26 members of the workgroup, which included 10 Network
members, as well as other related organizations, assisted living
representatives and government officials.  The workgroup has made
tentative plans to continue meeting in 2012 to help guide implementation
of the report's recommendations.

 

Three proposals to expand housing subsidies for people living with
HIV/AIDS were considered but not included in the report's
recommendations, despite much interest in one, a proposal to cap HASA
tenants' rent contributions at 30% of income.  The Network will work
with our members and allies to ensure that the report's suggestion to
study and address this issue is vigorously pursued.

 

The Network would like to thank Governor Cuomo, the Medicaid Redesign
Team, the Department of Health and all the state agencies and workgroup
members for the opportunity to contribute to this critical discussion
and report.  Affordable Housing Workgroup Co-Chairs Deputy Secretary Jim
Introne and Ed Matthews of UCP deserve special commendation for their
leadership of the group, as do Mark Kissinger of NYS DOH and Andrea
Cohen from the New York City Deputy Mayor's Office, who so ably staffed
the workgroup and wrote the report. 

 

Targeted investments in supportive housing for high-need, high-cost
Medicaid populations can be an effective strategy for reducing Medicaid
spending and improving care.  The Network is proud to be a part of such
an important statewide initiative, and looks forward to helping to
implement housing recommendations in 2012.

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://kilakwa.net/pipermail/nyaprs_kilakwa.net/attachments/20111214/0bd8128e/attachment.html>