February 28, 2022

Good afternoon,

As you know, the NYS Council has been leading statewide advocacy efforts to ensure the Governor’s proposal (Part P in the Health and Mental Hygiene Article VII budget) that would require NYS to use a competitive bid process to identify MCOs capable of managing benefits for some of New York’s most vulnerable citizens, is included in the enacted state budget.  The path to passage of this important proposal begins with Senate and Assembly lawmakers including the proposal in their soon to be released one house budget bills, and advocates and other stakeholders facing down often inaccurate claims being made by health plan representatives that oppose the proposal.

To date, the NYS Council has hosted two meetings bringing together associations and coalitions that we think have an interest in the passage of this proposal, the second meeting being a discussion with State Medicaid Director Brett Friedman.

Linked here please find a letter we wrote and then shared with our colleague associations for their sign on and support.  This morning I sent our sign on letter to all members of the NYS Legislature as well as O agency leads, our executive branch and DOB colleagues, and our contacts in the offices of the relevant Committee Chairs.  I was pleased to learn that Assemblywoman Gunther has included Part P as a priority in her Chair Letter. 

We are also sharing with media outlets around the state.  We would appreciate your doing the same.  Below I have included a very brief note you can use (or tweak) when you share our letter with media outlets, etc.