Governor’s 30-Day Amendments Advance Budget Discussions
On Feb. 20th, the Governor submitted his 30-Day Amendments to his 2014-15 Executive Budget Proposal. These amendments are the final opportunity for the Governor to make changes to his budget proposal before the Legislature begins negotiating a final budget. The amendments included two changes that are relevant to LeadingAge New York members:
- Advanced Home Health Aide: A new provision establishing a certification process and scope of services for advanced home care aides. The language directs the Department of Health to create a work group to develop a certification process for advanced home health aides and to develop a scope of services that could be performed by advance home health aides. The proposal specifically limits services to self-directing individuals performed under the supervision of RN employed by a home care services agency.
- DISCO Provider Eligibility: The amendment would broaden the definition of applicants who would be eligible to become managed care OPWDD Developmental Disabilities Individual Support and Care Coordination Organizations (DISCOs). Last year’s budget amended section 4403-g of the public health law to provide that such entities must be controlled by one or more non-profit organizations with a history of managing care for the OPWDD population. The amendments propose to expand this to potentially include HMOs and Managed Long Term Care plans that are certified under the public health law (4403 and 4403-f, respectively) that meet OPWDD and DOH to-be-determined criteria. Thus, the Governor’s proposal would permit for-profit entities to be eligible applicants.
The presentation of the 30-Day Amendments now sets the stage for the Legislature to work towards a final budget agreement. When the Legislature returns to Albany this week, it will work to reach consensus on revenues by March 1. The Senate and Assembly are scheduled to pass their one-house budget bills on March 12, which will reflect each houses’ priorities for the final budget, immediately followed by the convening of Joint Budget Conference Committees. If all goes as planned, the Legislature and Governor hope to have the final budget passed by March 27. You can see the entire budget schedule here: http://www.assembly.state.ny.us/Press/20140131/.
Contact: Ami Schnauber, aschnauber@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8854 or Alyssa Lovelace, alovelace@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8844