Cover Letter to CMS

• Cover Letter also available in Portable Document Format (PDF, 76KB)

December 30, 2013

Ms. Cynthia Mann
Director
Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services
7500 Security Boulevard, MS S2-26-12
Baltimore, Maryland 21244

Dear Ms. Mann:

New York State formally requests an amendment to our Section 1115 Demonstration (Waiver Number 11-W-00114/2, also known as the "Partnership Plan") to allow the state to provide Behavioral Health (BH) services to individuals with significant mental illness and substance use disorder (SUD) needs. The amendment will continue implementation of a key Medicaid Redesign Team initiative, Care Management for All, by allowing the transition of BH state plan services from a fee-for-service (FFS) payment and delivery model to a coordinated model under Medicaid Managed Care.

The attached BH amendment outlines New York´s strategy for providing coordinated, quality health care through qualified Mainstream Managed Care Plans and/or specialized managed care product lines known as Health and Recovery Plans (HARPs). Also attached is New York´s response to the 106 preliminary questions from our submission of the BH amendment in draft. We look forward to working with you to finalize the Special Terms and Conditions so that New York State can move forward with this important MRT initiative critical to the redesign of New York´s health care infrastructure for individuals with significant BH care needs.

If CMS wishes to discuss this request in further detail, please contact Kalin Scott of my staff at (518) 474-3018.

Sincerely,

Jason A. Helgerson
Medicaid Director
Office of Health Insurance Programs

Attachments

cc: Jessica Woodard,CMS
Eliot Fishman, CMS
Michael Melendez, CMS
John Guhl, CMS
Ricardo Holligan, CMS
Kalin Scott, NYS DOH
Greg Allen, NYS DOH
Vallencia Lloyd, NYS DOH
Robert Myers, NYS OMH
Robert Kent, NYS OASAS