August 25, 2021

Good afternoon,

We are pleased to share an advanced FINAL copy of 1115 Concept Paper submitted by DOH to CMS in pursuit of a new 1115 waiver initiative for New York.  Apparently this document will be posted to the DOH website shortly. 

We are gratified to see several changes from an earlier document we reviewed that makes more overt the critical role of behavioral health services in achieving the quadruple aim and addressing the health inequities and other major issues New York seeks to address through the proposed initiative.

I just received the document and so, I have only been able to do a very quick review but I can see that our conversations with Brett Friedman regarding the unique role of BH providers,  the importance of the services they provide, and the critical workforce crisis we are experiencing are acknowledged  in the document.  We had several additional requests for inclusion in the Paper.  I will continue to review and share more thoughts shortly.