August 15, 2023

As you can see from the NYS Council Workgroup meeting summaries we have shared over the past few weeks, there has been tremendous participation and a great deal of work accomplished in each of the Workgroups.  Thank you so much to everyone for your time and expertise!  We are now ready to draft the survey we have discussed, as well as additional materials to support our ‘budget asks’.  As such, and in consideration of your time, we are temporarily pausing the workgroup meetings beginning today.  There will be no workgroup meetings for the remainder of this week.

To date, all of the workgroups have met twice, to flesh out our ’25 Budget and Legislative priorities in four areas:  Rates, Workforce, Regulatory Reform/Relief, and Medicaid managed care Reform.  In addition to these 4 high priority budget/legislative areas, the NYS Council will once again lead the charge to: 

1.    Compel state leaders to pass and the Governor to enact our OMIG reform bill 

2.    Cure the ongoing disparity that exists between the Medicaid rate and commercial rates 

3.    Further expand the CCBHC Demonstration Program in NYS

The survey we are developing will collect only the most important data to support our advocacy efforts. Today, we will begin drafting the questions for the survey, as well as other advocacy documents. We will review the draft survey before it goes out to members during our Thursday,  August 24th NYS Council Weekly Member Support and Public Policy call. 

If all goes as planned, the survey will go out to all NYS Council members on Friday, August 25,with responses due back by September 12.  We will review survey results during our Thursday, September 14th NYS Council Weekly Member Support and Public Policy call, and then we are off to the races!  

As we have noted during Workgroup meetings, the intention is to make several of the workgroups standing NYS Council Committees where we will continue to work on the medium and long term objectives discussed during our recent meetings. 

Please remember that there will be no Workgroup Meetings for the remainder of this week.  Please share this update with those in your agency who have been participating in this process.  I will do the same in a separate communication. 

Again, thank you to everyone for your generosity and expertise!  #NYSCouncilAdvocacyWorks!