January 27, 2025
Webinar Announcement from Legal Action Center on 2/6/25 at 10:00 am:
TOPIC: Overcoming Barriers to Buprenorphine in Retail Pharmacies
https://www.lac.org/work/events/overcoming-barriers-to-buprenorphine-in-retail-pharmacies
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UHF to Lead Coordination of NYS Health Equity Regional Organization (HERO), Supporting Better Integration of Medicaid Services
The New York State Department of Health has announced that United Hospital Fund will lead the coordination of the State’s Health Equity Regional Organization (HERO) to bridge public health, social services, and health care delivery for the State’s Medicaid beneficiaries.
The HERO is a core initiative under the State’s current 1115 waiver amendment—approved by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in January 2024—which has a multi-pronged approach to strengthening the integration of social services and health care delivery.
UHF will collaborate with the State’s Medicaid Program, health care providers, community stakeholders, and academic partners to understand and analyze effective, regionally focused approaches to addressing the social needs of Medicaid beneficiaries, such as food insecurity, housing instability, and lack of transportation.
“We are honored to have been named to lead the Health Equity Regional Organization and support the State in achieving the health equity goals that are the focus of this Medicaid waiver,” said Oxiris Barbot, MD, president and CEO of United Hospital Fund. “The hard work ahead is a natural extension of the analysis, research, convening, and consensus-building that UHF has been doing for many years, and we look forward to working with partners across the state to build bridges between public health, social care, and health care that will ultimately improve both health outcomes and health equity in New York State.”
The waiver amendment package includes $7.5 billion in funding from both the State and federal government.
Making New York State’s Medicaid system work for all of those it serves is closely tied to United Hospital Fund’s mission of building an effective and equitable health care system for every New Yorker. For decades, United Hospital Fund has prioritized improving access to health care and health insurance.
To learn more about UHF’s role in leading the HERO initiative, click the button below. To learn more about New York State’s Health Equity Reform waiver (under the MRT 1115 Waiver Amendments tab), click here.
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| President Donald Trump’s busy first week in the White House produced a government hiring freeze, nixed discrimination protections, a revoked AI order, withdrawals from global organizations and personnel changes. The Fierce Healthcare team tracks all the executive orders and actions that impact healthcare. (Fierce Healthcare, 1/27/25) ————————————- In our review of legislation we would like your comment on the following bill. While a brief summary of this legislation is included, full text of the legislation is available upon entering the bill number in the search field included at the top of the following page: Click Here to Find Bill Text and Memo A3032 Lunsford — Requires certain private insurance plans to reimburse for services provided by child advocacy centers A3035 Lunsford — Includes care and services provided by a child advocacy center under standard coverage for Medicaid recipients A3041 Kelles — Requires training for teachers, administrators and instructors in the area of mental health response training A3102 Dilan — Conforms the definition of an incarcerated individual with a serious mental illness to the definition of “person with a serious mental illness” in the mental hygiene law A3120 Rosenthal — Provides reimbursement for transportation to and from inpatient and outpatient diagnosis and treatment of substance use disorder A3129 Lunsford — Establishes the fentanyl abuse and overdose prevention task force A3148 Gonzalez-Rojas — Relates to cost sharing fees for outpatient treatment at a substance use treatment program A3149 Colton (MS) — Relates to actions by health care providers against patients A3159 Rosenthal — Mandates commercial insurance coverage of peer support services as part of treatment for substance use disorder S3051 HARCKHAM — Relates to setting comprehensive outpatient services S3057 FERNANDEZ — Sets standards for addiction professionals S3148 COONEY — Relates to health care and mental hygiene worker bonuses S3176 CANZONERI-FITZPATRICK — Requires the commissioner of education to develop model mental health screenings for students and associated guidelines to assist school mental health screeners to perform mental health screening services |