March 3, 2022

Good morning,

Thanks to those NYS Council member agency representatives who joined our weekly Member Support and Public Policy call this morning.

During the call, I discussed an issue in which several NYS Council members had received a Notice of Rate Change from the OMH, however the providers could not determine what the rate changes were for.  The transmittal code on the Notice received is: 16641, and it states the rate changes are effective 2/1/2022, fyi.

Our colleagues at Jewish Board received a response from OMH that helps to clarify what’s going on here. Gwen Diamond is the ‘go to’ person on these matters at OMH and she provided the following information (below) to Jewish Board.  We hope this is helpful to those NYS Council members who may have received the same Notice from OMH.

Many thanks to our colleagues at Jewish Board for raising the issue and sharing the response from OMH! 

(From Gwen Diamond)The OMH Rate Distribution System (RDS) sent out an email about Clinic rate changes made under APG transmittal number 16641, effective 2/1/22.   Please be advised that these temporary ARPA rate increases are not yet active.  They have not been transmitted to eMedNY and require the approval of both CMS and DOB.

My bureau prepped the rates in our OMH database in anticipation of the approvals so we can load them to eMedNY quickly upon approval. The email was sent out prematurely. I apologize for the confusion.

Guidance is currently being developed regarding these increases and will be sent to providers soon.  Please see the OMH reimbursement page for up-to-date rates for all providers. https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/medicaid_reimbursement/