01 May CP Statement & Overview of NYS Budget

Posted at 19:29h in News by
New York’s leaders have chosen to continue the erosion of a once-proud service system by failing to keep up with costs of inflation, in effect cutting the State’s commitment and funding for I/DD services.
Inflation for the past year was pegged at 8.5% and State leaders have provided an increase of 4%, effecting a cut of 4.5% for the disability sector.
We all know that rising costs make it more difficult to manage everyday budget and the tens of thousands of people living across the State in OPWDD programs will be expected to make do with less. At the same time, our leaders have chosen to put nothing in the budget to reverse our escalating workforce crisis. Unfortunately, disability providers and the disability community as a whole has been deemed “less than” once again and the erosion the care and supports for New Yorkers with I/DD started in the Cuomo Administration continues.
This outcome flies in the faces of the tireless advocates who raised their voices for so many months this legislative session. We thank those self-advocates, family members, staff and our supporters in the legislature who fought for our families, staff, and the people we support.
We know that this callous approach to funding disability services does not sit well with our community and the growing frustration and anger is palpable – we’ve been heard and seen with multiple rallies, outreach to electeds, etc. and yet our State leaders have chosen to ignore our needs.
New Yorkers with disabilities are not bargaining chips to be tossed about, but state leaders put the care and quality of life New York’s most vulnerable citizens up for negotiation. Their final agreement continues a pattern of neglect we fought for decades to overcome.
That fight isn’t over.
We made a commitment to nonstop advocacy and that’s what we’ll continue to do.
We’ll assess our efforts this year. We’ll see what worked and what didn’t, and we’ll strategize for the coming year.
But we will not let New Yorkers with I/DD be forgotten.

Initial Look at the Final 2023-2024 New York State Budget

Below is a brief look at the budget bills that have been introduced. CP State will provide more detailed information as we are able to see all of the bills and read them in detail.
Please let us know if you have any questions.

The final 2023-2024 New York State budget bills began to be released on Sunday evening, April 30 and the Senate & Assembly began passing the bills on May 1, 2023. The final budget of $229 billion is $2 billion more than originally proposed by the Governor but provides very little of the priorities and critically need funding for children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families.

OPWDD
· 4% COLA
· Flexibility in nursing tasks – Rejects Governor’s proposal to provide increased flexibility in delegating nursing tasks by allowing direct support staff in OPWDD non-certified community-based programs to perform certain tasks. The Legislature rejected this proposal because nurses objected to it.
· IDD Ombuds Program – $2 million Includes language to create an independent intellectual and developmental disability ombudsman program.
· New Opportunities – $2 million for new service opportunities for individuals living at home with caregivers who are unable to continue caring for them.
· Managed Care – extends the DD managed care authority until 12/31/2025.

SED
We have not seen the Education Article VII bill language, but we do not anticipate that any of our priorities were included in the budget. We will need to work with SED and the Legislature to ensure that needed provisions are included in the Methodology letter from DOB to SED.

DOH
· Early Intervention Rate increase – ZERO
· Maintains Prescriber Prevails – — intentionally omits the Executive proposal to allow the Department of Health to eliminate drugs from the Medicaid list of over-the-counter covered drugs and eliminate prescriber prevails from Medicaid.
· Medicaid Buy In Expansion – expand the Medicaid Buy-In Program for working people with disabilities.
· Rejects Interstate Licensure Compact and Nurse Licensure Compact – rejects/omits the Executive proposal to expand the scope of practice for medical providers and the introduction of the Interstate Licensure Compact and Nurse Licensure Compact
· Telehealth Parity – does not include any telehealth parity for Article 28 clinics
· Medicaid Rate increases:
o Hospitals – 7.5%
o Hospital outpatient services -6.5% – which could go up to 7.5% if approved by CMS
o Nursing Homes and assisted living – 6.5% which could go up to 7.5% if approved by CMS
o Article 28 DT&Cs- ZERO

OMH
· 4% COLA
· Accepts the proposal to allow the Office of Mental Health and the Office of Addiction Services and Supports to jointly license certified community behavioral health clinics and create an Indigent Care Pool to compensate providers who suffer losses due to uncompensated care.
· Commercial Insurance Coverage – Includes proposal to require commercial insurance coverage of certain behavioral health services.
· Penalties -increases penalties for failing to comply with operating certificates or the Mental Hygiene Law from a maximum of $1,000 – $2,000 per day and a maximum of $25,000 per incident.
· Daniels’s Law – includes a “Daniel’s Law” Task Force to look at empowering mental health responders, rather than police officers, to show up to distress calls when people are experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis.
· $1 billion investment over the next five years which is predominantly for capital and hospital inpatient beds.

OTHER
· MTA Payroll mobility Tax – increases to 0.60% from 0.34% on large employers in New York City.
· Human Services COLA – 4% for the Office for People with Disabilities; Office of Mental Health: Office of Addiction Services and Supports; State Office of the Aging; Office of Family and Children Services; and $480,000 for the Office of Temporary Disability.
· Minimum Wage – we have not seen the final minimum wage language, but it appears that Upstate minimum wage will increase from $14.20 to $15 at the beginning of 2024 and will then increase by 50 cents in 2025 & 2026 to reach $16. Starting in 2027, it will be pegged to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and automatically increase by inflation %.
NYC minimum wage will increase by $.50 beginning of 2024 to reach $17 and will then be pegged to the CPI and automatically increase by inflation %.

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