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Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to health
- Referred to health
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to the early rate restructuring work group and early intervention demonstration projects
Purpose
This legislation would direct the Commissioner of Health, in consultation with the Commissioner of the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, to establish an early intervention rate restructuring work group to review and make recommendations for a redesign of the reimbursement system for early intervention services, to report to the legislature and prepare for implementation of a redesigned reimbursement system. The bill also directs the Commissioners to develop and disseminate an RPF to establish early intervention demonstration projects so that children with multiple services needs can receive services in a comprehensive, coordinated, collaborative, family-centered approach and explore alternative services delivery and reimbursement models.
Summary of provisions
Sections one of the bill creates two new sections 2555 and 2555-a of the public health creating the early intervention rate restructuring work group, directing the commissioners to collect data on early intervention providers and to report to the legislature on the work group's findings and recommendations no later than March 31, 2010. It also adds a new section 2555-a to the public health law creating the early intervention demonstration projects at least two of which shall begin no later than January 1, 2010.
Read the full memo (645 words)
Section two of the bill provides for an immediate effective date.
Justification
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Part C, the Federal law authorizing Early Intervention (EI) services, requires comprehensive, coordinated, and collaborative services across State agencies as well as individual providers, in order to most effectively meet the needs of infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. Despite attempts to comply with both the mandate and the spirit and intent of the law, the design of New York State's Early Intervention Program (EIP) has instead encouraged the proliferation of individual, private providers, delivering separate and discrete services with little or no effective coordination. In addition, while overall costs for these services are quite high, the fee-for-service reimbursement to providers is often inadequate to cover their expenses, particularly for comprehensive agencies serving children with significant disabilities and multiple service needs.
The current reimbursement system for EI services was developed and implemented in 1994. From the initial establishment of the rates, there were concerns regarding the adequacy of several of the factors used to calculate the rates. Since the initial rates, there have been very few adjustments to reflect the continually increasing costs. The lack of increases in the EI rates have caused these rates to fall dramatically behind those of comparable services and has jeopardized the viability of these critical services to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. The current rates are wholly inadequate for some providers, such as comprehensive agency providers, which incur additional expenses to provide training and supervision of their staff, additional team meeting and coordination time, as well as additional reporting and paperwork requirements. The fee-for-service nature of the reimbursement system has also caused significant problems for providers serving children with more significant disabilities and frequent absences due to illness or medical
complications. The problems with reimbursement have caused a number of providers to stop delivering Early Intervention services.
In order to truly comply with the mandate and intent of IDEA, this bill requires that an Early Intervention Rate Restructuring Work Group be established to redesign the Early Intervention program reimbursement and that Early Intervention Demonstration Projects be established so that children with multiple service needs can receive services in a comprehensive, coordinated, collaborative, family-centered approach which explore alternative service delivery and reimbursement models for effectiveness and efficiency.
Legislative history
Same as S.8050 of 2008 reported to Rules Committee
Fiscal implications
None, as the demonstrations established in the bill can be funded with existing Early Intervention funding.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.