Executive Committee Meeting Minutes March 23, 2023

By Zoom

3:00 – 4:30pm

Members Present: Graham Harriman (Governmental Co-chair), Dorella Walters (Community Co-chair), Billy Fields (Finance Officer), Saqib Altaf, Ronnie Fortunato, Marya Gilborn, Charmaine Graham, Steve Hemraj, Emma Kaywin, Matthew Lesieur, David Martin, Freddy Molano, MD, Jeff Natt, Julian Palmer, Guadalupe Dominguez Plummer, Claire Simon (for Joan Edwards), Marcelo Maia Soares, Marcy Thompson

Members Absent: Ronnie Fortunato

Other Council Members Present: Gregg Bruckno, Reginald Brown, Rose Chestnut

Staff Present: NYC DOHMH: David Klotz, Melanie Lawrence, Doienne Saab, Johanna Acosta, José Colón-Berdecía, Deborah Noble, Karen Miller, Kimbirly Mack; Public Health Solutions: Barbara Silver, Arya Shahi, Rosemarie Santos

Agenda Item #1: Welcome/Introductions/Minutes/Public Comment

Mr. Harriman and Ms. Walters opened the meeting followed by a roll call and a moment of silence.  The minutes from the February 23, 2023 meeting were approved with no changes.

Agenda Item #2: GY 2023 Planning Council Support Budget

Ms. Plummer announced that an invitation went out to all Executive Committee members for a virtual meeting with HRSA on May 15^th, during their site visit.  HRSA will develop an agenda and provide a link.

Mr. Soares encouraged wider participation in discussions around peer workers.

Agenda Item #2: GY 2023 Planning Council Support Budget

Mr. Harriman presented the GY 2023 Planning Council support budget, negotiated by the Council chairs and the Recipient.  The budget comes out of the 10% administrative funds taken off the top of the award.  The GY 2023 budget, as in previous years, is predominantly personnel costs for Council staff.  The other than personnel costs include contractors for the Council website, online training, parliamentarian, and money for a youth forum and anti-stigma training.  OTPS costs are considerably smaller due to the fact that meetings are held virtually.  Funds are budgeted for one in-person meeting, to be held at the beginning of the next planning session. Consumer incentives will continue at the previous year’s rate.  The overall budget comes in at 3.5% less than the previous year. 

There was a discussion on the possibility of resuming in-person meetings.  The logic behind holding virtual meetings include greatly reduced costs and greater accessibility (esp. for people who must travel a long distance, have mobility issues, have health concerns, and other barriers to participating in person).  Some members stressed that in most areas of life, there is a movement back to in-person interaction, which allows for community building and stronger interpersonal ties.  A possibility was floated for periodic in-person meetings (e.g., quarterly) for the full Council.

There was a consensus to conduct a new survey of Council members that frames the question of in-person and virtual meetings in the context of all the issues discussed (COVID, accessibility, costs, etc.).  The results will be used to return with a newly negotiated budget that reflects Council preferences to be considered at the April Executive Committee meeting.

Agenda Item #3: Data Collection Workgroup Recommendations

Mr. Bruckno and Mr. Harriman presented the recommendations of the Council’s Data Collection Workgroup, which was formed to address long-standing challenges around Ryan White Part A (RWPA) program data collection (barriers to provider-level data, Inefficient data entry, inability to import or export data, and data collection burden on consumers and providers).  The Workgroup was charged with developing recommendations to share with the Recipient, colleagues in NYC DOHMH, NYSDOH AIDS Institute, and HRSA to improve RWPA data collection through improved database technology.  Current data flow was compared to an equitable data flow that benefits all stakeholders.  A timeline of Workgroup meetings from February 2022 was given, including presentations from HRSA, DOHMH, eSHARE, and RWPA providers and consumers.  The recommendations are summarized below: 

1. Remove collection for eSHARE of data on: AIDS diagnosis date, hospitalizations and ED visits, sexual history, other assessments.
2. Eliminate collection of lab test data (except for Ambulatory Outpatient Care programs).
3. Increased coordination between Recipient and Planning Council to ensure agreement on data collection needs.
4. Recipient work with eSHARE or a future information system administration to develop routine service category data reports to inform the community planning process.
5. Recipient inform Council of any additional data collection requirements communicated to Ryan White Part A funded programs
6. Database changes (accommodate multiple funders, share with NYS AI).
7. Sharing intake, eligibility, and demographic data between providers to reduce barriers to services for consumers and reduction of data collection burden for providers and consumers.
8. Ensure organizations have access to their own data for performance measuring, quality assurance, and quality management.
9. data collection efforts should be aligned with Medicaid data collection to increase interoperability, reduce redundancy, and burden.

After this Committee and the Council ratify the recommendations, they will be shared with NYC DOHMH, NYS AI, HRSA/HAB, the HIV Planning Group and other planning bodies.  Ms. Simon and Ms. Plummer affirmed the desire of NYS AI and DOHMH to partner on a uniform data collection system.

A summary of the ensuing discussion follows:

• Issues around consumers accessing their data and privacy/security services to ensure confidentiality.  It was noted that eSHARE is not an electronic medical record system that clients would have access to for health care information. 
• Most medical information would be deleted going forward, but providers can see viral load and other data under a law that allows DOHMH to share information on 
• From a provider perspective, working with multiple reporting systems is a burden.  This is a push to create efficiencies and allow providers more time for working with clients, rather than on data entry.

A motion was made and seconded to adopt the Data Collection Workgroup’s recommendations.  The motion was adopted 14Y-0N.

Agenda Item #4: Planning Council Chairs Report

Mr. Harriman and Ms. Simon reported that the NYS Coordinating Committee, made up of the leadership of all HIV-related planning bodies statewide, is meeting next week.  The Committee seeks to coordinate and collaborate around initiatives in the context of the four pillars of the Integrated Plan (IP).  At next week’s meeting, they will discuss the results of the survey on the IP process.

Mr. Harriman reported that at next week’s Council meeting, in addition to the Data Workgroup recommendations, there will be presentations on the EMA’s Quality Management Plan, and on the NYC DOHMH Mental Health Plan for NYC. 

Mr. Lesieur reported that advocacy efforts around the 340B program is focusing on the NYS Assembly to ensure that the carve-out is on the top of the list.  The budget will likely be late and there might be issues with prescriptions and co-pays, but ADAP is prepared to cover gaps.

There being no further comment, the meeting was adjourned.