March 6, 2024

In addition to the joint letter we sent to state leaders re: the CHANGE Healthcare outage and its impact on mental health and addiction treatment providers earlier today, we also drafted a memo that refutes some of the arguments being made by health plans as they attempt to walk back the critical elements of the commercial rate mandate proposal.

This morning I drafted the memo (attached) and then circulated it for sign-on support from colleague associations.  The memo along with a cover letter drafted by our fabulous government relations consultant Marcy Savage that includes the paragraph (excerpted below) was sent to each and every member of the Assembly and the Senate about an hour ago. Lawmakers are currently putting together their one house budget bills scheduled for release early next week.  This is a critical moment.

(excerpt)
Please reject financially-motivated, health insurance plan arguments and efforts to defeat this proposal, which the memo below speaks to.  Instead, in light of New York’s ongoing overdose epidemic and escalating suicide rates, the Assembly must include Part AA in your one-house budget bills without changes.  The time is now to cure a longstanding access to care issue for New Yorkers with commercial insurance coverage.