News

News

August 18, 2020

Telehealth became the star of the pandemic by keeping people in services despite having to quarantine at home.  North Carolina quickly ramped up their telehealth policies through a temporary waiver of federal rules and providers accordingly increased their telehealth capacity.  The list of qualified professionals who can provide certain services, particularly telehealth, was also expanded…

Medicaid Transformation

August 17, 2020

The Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Medicaid and Health Choice received some revealing updates on Medicaid managed care implementation from NC DHHS leaders Dave Richard, Deputy Secretary for NC Medicaid and Jay Ludlam, Assistant Secretary for Medicaid.  They provided insights into what the Department is working on right now for implementation.  A number of key…

News

Confidentiality rules related to substance use disorder services have historically been more stringent than confidentiality requirements for other diagnoses.  This has made it more challenging to share consumer information from one professional to another.  As the country moves toward a greater integration of care, data sharing through electronic health records, health information exchanges and other…

Medicaid Transformation

July 14, 2020

The new law, SL 2020-88, now gives a date certain, July 1, 2021, by which the Standard Plans will begin.  There is a tremendous amount of detail that goes into meeting that implementation date.  Of course, NC DHHS is not starting from scratch, but some of the infrastructure built to meet the previous February 2020…

Legislation

The NC General Assembly has effectively wrapped up the short session of the 2019-2020 biennium.  With their adjournment on July 11th, any bill that did not get signed into law will now have to be reintroduced in the long session to be considered.  As legislative leaders indicated, there was not one singular budget bill considered…

News

In June, the U.S. Health and Human Services Administration announced $15 billion in Federal stimulus funding available for providers billing CHIP, Medicaid or an MCO, when the provider had not received funding from the Provider Relief Fund. In NC that would apply to behavioral health and I-DD providers.  The funding is to provide relief for…

News

NC DHHS has established the Olmstead Plan Stakeholder Advisory (OPSA) to advise DHHS in the development of a statewide plan that aligns the public service delivery system with “a contemporary vision and associated values”.  The Olmstead decision requires that there be a State plan with the intention of encouraging states to make significant system change. …

Announcements

Keep December 2-4th marked on your calendar because i2i is taking our famous Pinehurst Conference Virtual!  Expect the same great sessions, networking, exhibits and awards AND a special package for conference participants who might want to visit Pinehurst at a later date. i2i is excited to venture into this new territory using the Whova conference…