• Yesterday CMS signaled approval of some of the components of the State’s Appendix K/1135 Waiver. OPWDD and DOH are still answering questions from CMS about the remaining components and expect that approval of the remaining components are imminent. 

• A copy of the approval letter from CMS can be found here.

• OPWDD representatives will be meeting with CMS on Monday to advance additional plans for services and payment under Emergency Waivers K and 1115 to assist providers during the emergency. Their plans build upon the provisions currently in place and provide a longer term solution in a first phase that goes to April 17 and a potential second phase called Covid Response Services for an additional period. 

• Providers that are able to provide sites for potential emergency housing should be identifying their available property and their ability to staff this. A DDRO contact list will be sent out soon to providers for contact with that information. The emergency location would not necessarily be for an agency's own service recipients. There is a need too for sites that can be dedicated to just Covid 19 positive persons too. Funding is being thought through now within OPWDD and an update on funding for this will be provided in the future. 

• OPWDD has released the following revised emergency response templates based on feedback from the NY Alliance and other Provider Associations: Provider Notification of Emergency Response Template_3-25-20 PHP.xlsx and Provider Notification of Emergency Response Template EXCEL 97.xls

• Only providers who have had the technical challenges listed in one of the below categories should use the updated template. The changes are as follows:

• PHP Selection: A revised drop-down menu now includes PHP for Item/Field #32.

• ICF Selection: For providers whose care coordination is being managed by an ICF, we would ask providers to leave Item/Field #32 “blank.” 

• Provider Not in Drop Down: For agencies whose name is not in the drop down, they need to specify which field they are not listed in and provide us with their agency name. If we inadvertently did not include an OPWDD provider, a revised spreadsheet will be issued to that provider. These requests should be directed to the quality@opwdd.ny.gov. 

• Excel Version: For agencies who have issues with the Excel version compatibility, we have included the template with EXCEL 97 in the filename to assist with those compatibility issues. It is important to note that for the Agency Corp ID/Agency Name lists, they will have to find their name on the list and copy and paste it into the appropriate cell. Unfortunately, the automated list function (for lists with large number of selections) is not compatible with lower version of Excel. 

• CAS assessments should not be going forward at this time.

• The NY Alliance held a webinar this morning related to SEMP billing practices during the Covid-19 epidemic. A recording of that webinar can be found here.

• Today the Governor issued Executive Order 202.11. A list of relevant changes are listed below and the full Executive Order can be found here.
• This order permits the Commissioner of OPWDD to approve expanded settings for certain services beyond currently certified settings. 
• This order permits abbreviated training and/or extension of recertification deadlines for direct support professionals employed in programs and facilities certified pursuant to Article 16 experiencing staffing shortages. There will be a change to Medication Admin to create a shortened training.
• Extending provisions from a previous Executive Order which will result in the closure of schools until April 15, statewide. School districts must continue plans for alternative instructional options, distribution and availability of meals, and child care, with an emphasis on serving children of essential workers, of which Direct Support Professionals are considered essential health care workers.