We are in a behavioral crisis of enormous proportion and need the Legislature to include a 7.8% inflationary increase in rates and contracts to support mental health and substance use disorder provider operations AND staff wages.

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.”

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. 

The January 30 NYS Council Member Support and Public Policy Call featured Rosie Dawn Griffin, a partner at Feldesman Leifer, LLP, with a strong background in immigration law. Ms. Griffin provided information and practical (informal) advice to NYS Council members as they prepare for the possibility of an unannounced ‘visit’ from federal immigration enforcement officials who are increasingly showing up at healthcare and other settings across New York.

The call was recorded and a copy of the recording is available in the “members only” Archived Events section of the website.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), together with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), finalized telemedicine flexibility regulations for the prescribing of medications for opioid use disorder, including buprenorphine. The final rule, which goes into effect on February 18, 2025, makes permanent the buprenorphine-related telemedicine flexibilities that DEA and HHS had extended through the end of 2025.

The DEA has ruled that a patient can receive up to six months of buprenorphine (may be split into multiple prescriptions totaling six months) by telehealth. At the end of six months, the patient MUST be seen for an in-person medical evaluation. A patient who was previously seen for an in-person medical evaluation is exempt.

Additional details are available at Buprenorphine Telemedicine Prescribing: Questions and Answers.