We are in a behavioral crisis of enormous proportion and need the Legislature to include a 7.8% Targeted Inflationary Increase (TII) in the final budget.  The proposed TII is vital to stabilizing our system of care, particularly as we face significant uncertainty and potential funding challenges from the Federal Government. Sustained investment from New York State is crucial to ensuring that individuals with mental health and/or substance use disorder challenges and their families continue to receive the consistent, quality care they deserve.

Please call your legislators requesting a flexible 7.8 % inflationary rate and contract increase for BOTH wages and operating expenses for mental health and substance use disorder services and supports. Your Voice Will Make a Difference!

 Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins
(518) 455-2585

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie
 (518) 455-3791

Message:  “Please support a 7.8% inflationary increase in rates and contracts for mental health and substance use disorder staff and operations in the final budget. Without this additional funding, countless adults, children, and families will not get the services and support they desperately need.”

We are asking that all members send a letter to their representatives urging them to vigorously support the inclusion of our OMIG Audit Reform bill (S.4955-A (Harckham)/A.1069A (Paulin) in the final enacted state budget.

For too long, Medicaid audits conducted by the NYS OMIG have relied on tactics that are unnecessarily punitive. Providers who have operated in good faith and delivered high quality care live in fear of these OMIG audits because they can be punished severely for technical and/or human errors that are not material to whether the Medicaid recipient received the service, or the quality of care provided to the individual. Current OMIG audit practices include application of extrapolation to clerical errors, which has resulted in disproportionate findings and enormous fines that can shut down the entire program, or impact a Medicaid providers’ ability to continue to provide critical services to their communities. This practice is crippling and risks the continued viability of New York’s safety net system.

Use the NYS Council Advocacy Action Center to send letters to your legislations and urge them to include this in the final budget.

Join us in urging state leaders to support a future where no child is on a waitlist to receive behavioral health services, and where every child receives the care they need, when they need it.

Hundreds of thousands of children across the state fail to receive the mental health and substance use services (behavioral health care) they need. The consequences of this unmet need can be devastating for young people, families, and communities.

That is why we are urging state leaders to commit $200 million to the children’s behavioral health outpatient system to address the severe workforce crisis and fully fund the system to ensure children and families can access timely, high-quality services.

Use the NYS Council Advocacy Action Center to send letters to your legislations and urge them to include this in the final budget.

There is a disparate availability of critical services to address the youth mental health crisis in New York.  This has resulted in persistent waiting lists for outpatient and home-based care that range from several weeks to many months with some children and youth forced to live in hospital emergency rooms while awaiting an appropriate referral for follow-up care upon discharge from the hospital.  The NYS Council urges the state to require regulated commercial insurance and child health plus to provide coverage for children’s mental health and SUD services consistent with coverage under the NY Medicaid Program. Examples of mental health services currently available to Medicaid beneficiaries but not mandated to be covered by commercial insurance include HCBS and CFTSS services.