TRI-COUNTY STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING
February 12, 2025, 10:00-11:30am
By Zoom Videoconference
Members Present: L. Cyrus (Co-chair), J. Palmer (Co-chair), V. Alvarez, M. Diaz., D. Anderson, L M. Acevedo, R. Agarwal, L. Best, J. Braithwaite, L. Bucknor, V. Carlone, A. Contreras, J. Gago, P. Germinaro, J. Gobler, L. Hakim, B. Malloy, K. Palencia-Lua, A. Pizarro, K. Scott, P. Tang, G. Thomas, S.Thomas
Members Absent: A. Hardman, K. Mandel, A. Milian, A. Ruggiero
Guest Present: D.Norman, M. Yomogida, M. Weygant, B. Fields, P.Carr
Staff Present: NYC DOHMH: D. Klotz, D. Saab, M. Navejas, G. Dominguez Plummer, J. Acosta, S. Kramer
Agenda Item # 1-3: Opening/Moment of Silence/Minutes/Public Comment
Julian P. and LaShonda C. opened the meeting followed by introductions and a moment of silence. The minutes for January 8th, 2025 meeting were approved.
Michael N. announced the upcoming, open to all (in-person only) Consumers Committee – Client Advisory Board (CAB) Town Hall occurring in April from 930 am to 230pm. The town hall will consist of panels and workshops, describing the successes, challenges and best practices for implementing CABs to ensure that PWH have an equitable mechanism for sharing client experiences at agencies providing RWPA services. Michael N. shared that the Consumers Committee planning workgroup is looking for a TCSC consumer with CAB experience to serve as a panelist at the town hall. The Planning Council (PC) will arrange transportation services for the TCSC panelist and for any other community members from the region that want to attend the event. Breakfast, lunch and metro cards will be provided.
A few members expressed their anxiety and stress concerning the uncertainty of the new federal administration’s funding cuts that could heavily impact the future of RWPA services.
Agenda Item #4: Updates
| Consumer Update Maria D. expressed that Medicaid transportation continues to be an unreliable mode of transport for consumers. She also shared that some consumers are not receiving notification to recertify their Medicaid transportation benefit. Maria D.also mentioned the frequent occurrences of fall-related incidents and the need to better understand the causes and how to address this issue. Victor A. also emphasized that co-morbidities continue to be a challenge for consumers. |
Recipient Report
Report provided during the December 11th, 2024 meeting.
Planning Council and Federal Administration Update
David K. reported that the new RWPA grant year starts on March 1st and given the uncertain and precarious times of this new federal administration – the PC has no idea what will happen to program funding. It was mentioned that the Federal Government is currently operating under a continuing resolution since Congress was at a brink of a shutdown and decided to punt and keep the Federal government at its current level until March 14th; Congress is currently developing their budget plans for 2025. With the new administration, both Houses of Congress are controlled by the Republicans, it is uncertain if there will be a decision to preserve Ryan White funding, especially any Federal grant funded programs that focuses on equity and underserved communities, e.g., Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI) funds.
David K. shared that this potential funding issue was discussed in the Priority Setting and Resource Allocation (PSRA) Committee. PSRA approved the Tri-County Steering Committee’s spending scenario plan to hold the Tri-County funding harmless up to a 3.5 percent reduction of the entire grant award. If there is a larger reduction, then the Tri-County region would take a proportional reduction using a weighted formula with the four lowest ranked categories. This reduction scenario plan would hold harmless the most essential categories e.g., food, housing, medical transportation, and medical case management. PSRA will meet later in February to develop their scenario plan for the NYC proportion of the award.
Agenda Item #5: Presentation – Social Care Network Overview
Meghan Weygant, Hudson Valley Care Coalition (HVCC) provided an overview of New York State’s 1115 Waiver Amendment package and its Social Care Networks (SCNs) initiative to improve the integration of primary care, behavioral health, and supportive services across the state to address fragmented systems of care, advance health equity, improve health outcomes, and strengthen the health care workforce.
Meghan W. highlighted that HVCC is one of the awarded SCN organizations serving the Hudson Valley region. As a SCN they are identifying Medicaid Members’ unmet social needs, navigating them to health-related social needs (HRSN) services, and reimbursing HRSN service providers for their delivered services.
The SCN program is being implemented in phases:
- Wave 1 is currently underway and will continue until 2027. Currently, there are 54 CBOs enrolled in Wave 1 providing services.
- Wave 2 will introduce 34 additional agencies, further expanding the program and its network
All Medicaid members are eligible and screened for HRSN services, if screening is positive, members are navigated to their appropriate county for services.
Meghan W. shared that if a member is already enrolled in services covered by the Ryan White program. They will not be enrolled into duplicate services under the SCN program. Screeners conducted by SCN CBOs will identify members that have unmet HRSN to connect them to unaddressed services that they are currently not receiving under Ryan White.
NYS and HVCC are currently considering braided funding to fill a gap in services for members that are screened and could benefit from additional HRSN. At this time, NYS is unsure if the SCN program will be continued after 2027.
Agenda Item #7: Adjournment
The next meeting will occur on March 12th, 2025, from 10 – 11:30 am. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
