September 9, 2025
Information in the attachment (above) was announced yesterday (9/8/2025). Source: X/Twitter
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We continue to follow the movement of an appropriations bill that focuses on the Labor-HHS portion of the federal budget. At the same time, the countdown to what some believe will be a federal government shutdown on October 1 continues. The likelihood that the outcome of this dangerous dance will result in another Continuing Budget Resolution where federal spending is held at current funding levels (rather than the American people getting a new federal budget on or before 10/1 that reflects actual need) seems high.
This won’t stop the introduction and/or forward movement of several key pieces of federal legislation including the SUPPORT Act, and a new piece of legislation that focuses on expansion of the CCBHC model and the eGrant Program. Additional pieces of legislation with ‘asks’ of import to NYS Council members include a bill related to SUD care, and another that seeks to address our pervasive workforce shortages, all of which are top priorities for our association as we approach the National Council’s upcoming Hill Day event on October 7-8.
Appropriations report spells out potential HHS cuts |
| By Simon J. Levien | 09/08/2025 04:08 PM EDT, Politico |
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A Monday report from the House Appropriations Committee breaks down the winners and losers in Republicans’ plan for funding the Department of Health and Human Services in the fiscal year that begins next month. The panel will meet to approve the bill Tuesday, setting it up for a vote in the full House. The measure would still need to get through the Senate, however, so fiscal 2026 spending at HHS is still very much under negotiation. An appropriations subcommittee advanced the $108 billion bill last week, a $7 billion cut from fiscal 2025, but nowhere near the $31.3 billion reduction President Donald Trump proposed earlier this year. The House appropriators’ report, which explains the panel’s thinking, says plenty of smaller agencies the White House hoped to slash entirely were retained, often with most of their 2025 funds intact. The list is long and includes centers and programs focused on minority health, genetic research and mental health. But several areas align with Trump’s agenda. Both the House appropriators and the president would end funds for Title X, a family-planning program introduced in 1970. The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, an agency focused on high-risk, high-reward research established under then-President Joe Biden, would also be cut down by over a third. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would get 20 percent less. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s reorganization plans likely played a role in the appropriations strategy for next year as well. He has proposed a new division, the Administration for a Healthy America, which would consolidate a number of existing offices and refocus parts of HHS around his plans to prioritize combating chronic diseases like diabetes and heart failure. The Health Resources and Services Administration, the HHS arm tasked with improving health care access that Kennedy wants to fold into the new division, faces a 10 percent cut, or about $880 million, according to the report. But the report also suggests no budget change to health center funding, an HHS program focused on primary care, one of Kennedy’s top priorities. The report increases funding for rural health providers, who are worried they can’t weather the massive cuts to Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for low-income people, that Republicans enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Per the report, the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, which aids and researches rural health, will get $150 million more next year. At the same time, House appropriators want to cut the Maternal and Child Health Bureau by $184 million, about 15 percent less. Trump’s budget recommended a small cut to an HIV/AIDS support program, but the committee report recommends a $500 million cut, about 20 percent of its funds from this year. |
Yesterday morning (8:53 a.m.) I sent all members an update discussing several ongoing NYS Council advocacy efforts. Upon reviewing the content of the information I sent yesterday, I spotted several type-o’s in the content re: CCBHC Demos and SCN services. I have revised the summary (below). The message is the same – it’s just easier to read and (hopefully) makes more sense:
Revised
CCBHC Demo and SCN
Thanks are due to the NYS Council member agency representative in WNY who recently called me to discuss an ongoing concern in which some CCBHC Demo agencies believe they cannot screen, case manage, and navigate CCBHC Demo clients that could benefit from SCN services such as housing, food, and transportation to the SCN because the CCBHC PPS rate bundle already includes payment to the Demo provider for general screening, navigation, and enhanced case management services. The provider I spoke with said: “While we are aware that specific enhanced services like housing, food, and transportation are not bundled in the CCBHC PPS, we can’t provide them through the SCN system because screening and navigation is required to get the client into the SCN system (where the provider is automatically be paid for screening, navigation and case management services). Therefore, providers are rightly concerned about a perception that the Demo agency is somehow “double dipping” (getting paid twice) and so they have refrained from this activity.
When we learned of this problem we immediately went to the state and pressed for clear guidance that confirms the rules of the road as soon as possible. State reps from DoH and OMH met earlier this week. I have received verbal confirmation that there is no prohibition that would preclude Demo agencies from screening and navigating a client to the SCN system and being paid to do so. DoH and OMH are working on language to clarify this issue, and it will be circulated to providers, SCNs, etc. within the next few weeks but possibly as early as next week.
Until you see it in writing, I would suggest you do nothing with this new information, however we want you to know we are fighting another good fight for access to critical services for New Yorkers who could (in this case) benefit from enhanced HRSN services through the 1115 waiver. THANK YOU to the NYS Council member agency that brought this to my attention.
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Attached to this email please find a Press Release from SHIN-NY announcing a new statewide encounter alerts pilot. The Release is also available at this link:
https://nyehealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/SEAS-Release-090825-1.pdf
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Cities Move Away From Strategies That Make Drug Use Safer
San Francisco, Philadelphia and others are retreating from “harm reduction” strategies that have helped reduce deaths but which critics, including Trump, say have contributed to pervasive public drug use.
NY Times, 8/25, Updated 9/2
Gift Article from the NYS Council:
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New York’s Small Group Market Has Big ProblemsFiscal Policy Institute, 9/9/2025
Health insurance premiums for small businesses are set to rise by 13 percent in 2026 – putting them on track to double by 2031 |
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