March 23, 2021
Two bills have been signed into law that allocate federal COVID-19 funding and appropriate additional funding to address the pandemic in communities. The most recent bill, SL 2021-3: 2021 COVID-19 Response and Relief was signed into law by the Governor on March 11th. Some of the provisions include: For the Community Mental Health Block Grant:…
Based on feedback already received, NC DHHS has postponed the Foster Care Specialty Plan (FC Plan) implementation from July 1, 2022 until July 1, 2023. The Department will establish a Foster Care Plan Workgroup that will support the development of an interim and long-term plan for children in foster care. Interested individuals/groups should notify the…
Congress passed the HR 1319, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and it did include funding for mental health and substance use disorder services as well as home and community based services. Some of the largest allocations for BH/IDD in the American Rescue Plan include: • $1,500,000,000 in funding for block grants for community…
The Opening Plenary keynote for the Spring Conference will be Allison Hamblin, MSPH, President and CEO of the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS). She will be discussing national trends and innovations in Medicaid behavioral health and healthcare, the progress of integrated care, the role of value based care and serving individuals with complex needs….
February 2, 2021
The NC General Assembly officially convened on January 13th and used the first two weeks of the long session to select committee members and appoint chairs. They reconvened on January 27th and began deliberations. Bills are slowly being introduced and committee work has not yet gotten underway. There are some new and familiar leaders in…
NC DHHS announced that they have awarded the Ombudsman contract for Medicaid managed care to Legal Aid of North Carolina. The Ombudsman role is a federally mandated component of the 1115 Medicaid waiver that gives NC the authority to move forward with integrated Medicaid managed care. In 2018, i2i wrote about the ombudsman in 2018…
The i2i Center and Benchmarks teamed up to offer a webinar for Providers, Managers and others on incorporating System of Care (SOC) into provider services under the Tailored Plan. System of Care offers a proven national model to increase value-based, whole person care for children and their families in NC. System of Care is a…
The Task Force was established by Governor Roy Cooper in June 2020 to “focus on addressing existing policies and procedures that disproportionately affect communities of color and developing solutions to ensure racial equity in North Carolina’s criminal justice system.” They have now issued their 2020 final report. The report includes recommendations related to the juvenile…