September 27, 2007

This update is dedicated to health care enhancements for direct care staff in mental health programs

Conference Update
Register on line for the MHANYS Conference (16—24 Year Olds in Transition) and awards dinner on October 25th and 26th. Register at www.mhanys.org

Health Care Enhancements

We are gaining momentum in the campaign for health care enhancements for direct care staff in mental health. As has already been documented, there was a successful campaign over the last several years in OMRDD that has led to over $60 million utilized to enhance health insurance funding for direct care staff over the last several years. This was well deserved and has helped in retaining quality direct care staff. For the first year of implementation, the state provided $17 million in funding for the program with an additional $14 million in Medicaid. Though there were several different formulas, the bottom line was that most direct care staff in OMRDD licensed programs received an enhancement of $325 per person for the first year of implementation.

This year, we are advocating for $10 million to provide a $325 per person health insurance stipend for 31,000 direct care workers in programs licensed by the New York State Office of Mental Health to begin to get equity with direct care staffs in licensed OMRDD programs.

We have had very good meetings with the Governor’s Office, The New York State Office of Mental Health and the Division of the Budget. They have all been generally supportive of the concept and recognize the significance of having a strong incentivized mental health work force.

Given the current fiscal climate and the concerns regarding the budget voiced by the Budget Director Paul Francis, we expect that any new initiatives will be greatly scrutinized. That said, it is important for us to point out the many reasons why there should be an increase in health insurance for direct care workers:

• The workforce in mental health has been vastly underpaid for many years. The recent COLA’s have helped but because of prior years of minimal increases, the turnover rate of staff in many programs is still very high. Offering a $325 health insurance stipend combined with the third year of a COLA can help incentivize an individual to stay in a position as evidenced by what has happened in OMRDD.

• It saves the state money because quality staff can better foster long term relationships with recipients which helps keep people moving forward in their recovery and leads to decreased usage of costly Medicaid services such as emergency rooms, jails and prisons.

• This is consistent with Governor Spitzer’s call for universal health care.

• It is also an equity issue. Many agencies run both mental health and developmental disability programs. This creates an inequitable work place when there are health care incentives for the developmental disabilities direct care staff while the mental health staff is not receiving any additional health care benefits.
  
• Health Care enhancements have already been implemented twice in OMRDD so there is already an existing ‘roadmap’ in place. By following the successful model of OMRDD, OMH should be able to implement the program with out incurring many barriers.

How Can You Help?

It is important to let the state leadership know that we should incentivize direct care staff by ensuring that the successful models of Health Care Enhancements I and II in OMRDD are implemented in mental health.

The best way to do this is by signing on to show the support of your agency. If your agency is interested in signing on, please send me an e-mail at gliebman@mhanys.org

As we have learned over the years, it is only through strong coalitions that we are best able to effect real change. Your support is greatly appreciated.