July 15, 2021
This morning the United Hospital Fund (UHF) held its’ Annual Medicaid Conference. Brett Friedman, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Special Counsel for the NYS Medicaid Plan (Brett is the also the day-to-day lead of the NYS Medicaid Program at the present time) was the keynote presenter at the event. We did our best to take screen shots of all the slides Brett used to enhance his presentation. The slides are posted on our website at: www.nyscouncil.org. (Toggle down on the home page to the Medicaid Redesign box and see the second message in the box.) Note: The clarity of the power point slides Brett used was not good. We did our best to enlarge and then crop the screen shots of the slides to maximize your ability to read them. UHF states they will circulate the approved slide deck and send it to registrants within 1-2 weeks. Also, UHF expects to post video from the event shortly.
The notes below are brief. We will send the archived video of the presentation as soon as we receive it.
7/15 – UHF Medicaid Conference: Brett Friedman
Brett began with a discussion of terms he would be using throughout the presentation to include definitions of certain key NYS healthcare system priority areas. Brett talked a little about the references he has used as the basis for the state coming up with working definitions of these key terms:
- Health Equity (Brett likes the Robert Wood Johnson definition of health equity. Here’s a link: https://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2017/05/what-is-health-equity-.html
- Health Disparities (Brett referenced the Healthy People 2020 definition of health disparities (see slide #1 on our website for definition)
- Brett referenced the Government Alliance on Race & Equity (GARE) as a resource for thinking about governments role in addressing these and related issues. (Here is a link to the GARE page that highlights the work of the Alliance and showcases some of its’ published reports: https://www.racialequityalliance.org/tools-resources/
Note: During the Q&A portion of his presentation Brett was asked about telehealth services. He mentioned that he thought the availability of audio only services for care recipients who received mental health and substance use disorder services during COVID has proved to be an excellent ‘use case’, demonstrating the value of this modality. More generally Brett said future decisions about which telehealth services/modalities are retained/incentivized will depend on their direct impact on the population being served, and what the long-term value of the modality or services is for the Medicaid Program.