June 2012

ABH July Committee

Meetings

Thursday, July19

Recovery

Committee for

Residential Services,

10 a.m.

Friday, July 20

DAE,

10 a.m.

Friday, July 27

PDT/PH,

10 a.m.

All meetings are held at ABH unless otherwise noted. For

more information, call

508-647-8385.

On Friday, May 25 the Massachusetts Senate passed a $32.4 billion budget for FY 2013.

During the budget debate:

The Senate adopted an amendment offered by Senator John Keenan that adds

$1.5 million to the DMH budget in new funding for clubhouse services.

The Senate adopted an amendment offered by Senator Karen Spilka to fund an

FY13 Salary Reserve at $20 million. This funding will be “annualized”, meaning

it will be built into future budget years.

The Senate budget also fully funds the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services (BSAS).

The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Senate President will now ap-point members to a conference committee that will be charged with negotiating differ-

ences between the House and Senate budgets. The Conference Committee will most

likely begin deliberations the week of June 4.

Senate Budget Success!

Are you Prepared? The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (otherwise

known as the federal healthcare reform bill) authorized behav-

ioral health providers to become health homes. While this is an

incredible opportunity for mental health and addiction provid-

ers, it may also seem daunting.

The SAMHSA-HRSA Center for Integrated Health Solutions recently released a com-

prehensive resource for providers: Behavioral Health Homes for People with Mental

Health & Substance Use Conditions: The Core Clinical Features. This paper helps pre-

pare behavioral health provider organizations to become health homes by outlining the

essential clinical features. The paper “provides context to the development of the

health home option….and describes multiple organizational models for structuring the

behavioral health home.” Reading it will give you a better sense of what your organi-

zation needs to do to become a health home.

SAAS National

Conference

&

NIATx Summit

June 19-22

∞

New Orleans

Rethinking the business

model of addiction and

mental health services.

Conference topics

Conference program

Evidence-Driven, Integrated Care for People

with Dual Eligibility: Strategies for Action

Tuesday, June 19

9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel, Marlborough

Presented by:

Richard Dougherty, Ph.D.

DMA Health Strategies

The need for more integrated care for people with mental illness and substance use

disorders is clear and new initiatives in Massachusetts for dual eligible and Primary

Care Clinician plan members will be driving significant changes to our health and hu-

man services delivery system. This session will review the elements of several evi-

dence-based models in clinic settings, including the IMPACT model, patient-centered

medical homes, peer-driven health homes, screening, and brief interventions. This

training will provide a foundation for senior leaders and middle management staff in

ABH agencies to implement new integrated care initiatives for their programs.

Fee: $50, includes continental breakfast

Audience: CEOs, Senior Executive Staff, Middle Management

Register Now!

Questions: Contact Jessica Hammond (508-647-8385, x16 or

JHammond@ABHmass.org).

Fix Your Accreditation Quandary Does the word accreditation give you a headache? Do you wish

you’d never heard of certain mixes of letters that make up weird

acronyms? Essential Learning would like to be the ibuprofen for

your accreditation headache with a three-part (free!) series: Navi-

gating the Road Toward Accreditation.

Session One: Understanding the Accreditation Process (a recording of the presentation

is available here).

Session Two: Self-Study and Site Visit Phase. June 12, 1:00-2:00 p.m. Register.

This session will help you “identify who should be involved in the process and how to

best prepare your staff in a way that gains buy-in and reduces pre-site visit stress

across your organization.”

Session Three: Achieving and Maintaining Accreditation. June 28, 1:00-2:00 p.m. Regis-

ter. This session focuses on the accrediting body’s decision-making process and how

to maintain your accreditation.

Annual Meeting in the Books On Tuesday, May 15, approximately 100 ABH members joined ABH for its Annual Meeting on The Changing

Landscape in Healthcare in 2012 featuring Kathryn Power, SAMHSA Regional Administrator and Julian Harris,

M.D., Director, Office of MassHealth. In addition to the informative talks on payment reform at the state

and federal levels, ABH members were able to network with each other and learn about what’s happening at

other behavioral health organizations across the state. For more photos, visit our Facebook page!

Over the next two months, the Massachusetts Medicaid EHR Incentive Payment Program will hold a series

of regional meetings across the state. Participants will “learn more about adopting, implementing or upgrad-

ing to federally-certified electronic health records, steps to achieving meaningful use and many other health

information technology topics.”

Regional Meeting Schedule:

Tufts Medical Center: Thursday, June 21, 2012; 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Click here to Register

Lawrence General Hospital: Tuesday, July 24, 2012; 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

Click here to Register

Jordan Hospital:

Wednesday, August 8, 2012; 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Click here to Register

Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers:

Tuesday, August 14, 2012; 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

Click here to Register

Questions? Contact the Massachusetts Medicaid EHR Incentive Payment Program at 1-855-MassEHR (1-855-

627-7347) or at massehr@masstech.org.

Electronic Health Record Rendezvous

ABH STAFF

Vicker V. DiGravio III President/CEO 508.647.8385, x11

vdigravio@abhmass.org

Sara Hartman Vice President for

Mental Health 508.647.8385, x13

shartman@abhmass.org

Constance Peters Vice President for

Addiction Services 508.647.8385, x15

cpeters@abhmass.org

Jessica Hammond Director of Children’s

Behavioral Health and Member Services

508.647.8385, x16

jhammond@abhmass.org

Rosemary Santini Administrative Assistant 508.647.8385, x10

rsantini@abhmass.org

Ellen Caliendo Business Manager

508.380.9887

ecaliendo@abhmass.org

Have You Seen Flat Stephen? No, not Flat Stanley, Flat Stephen. The National Council for

Community Behavioral Healthcare is trying to convince Stephen

Colbert to join their Hill Day efforts. As part of that campaign,

Flat Stephen made an appearance at ABH.

Although Flat Stephen may not convince Stephen Colbert to

attend Hill Day, we’re hopeful that he might capture your atten-

tion. Hill Day promises to be an interesting, action-packed two

days. On June 25, the National Council has scheduled a multi-

tude of panels consisting of “congressional staff, agency decision

-makers, and national experts” who will discuss their perspec-

tive on current health policy issues and how behavioral health

organizations fit into the emerging picture. The panels will include (among others):

Creating New Managed Care Approaches for Dual Eligibles: Many people

with severe mental illness are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid – and with this

complex population accounting for a disproportionate share of healthcare expendi-

tures, many states are moving them into managed care. This panel examines the ma-

jor issues that should be considered when moving dual eligibles into managed care and

provides information on current federal and state approaches to managing services for

duals.

Building a Health Home: With more and more payers turning to care coordina-

tion as a means of improving patient outcomes and lowering costs, there’s no more

important time to learn about the key model of care coordination: the health home.

Panelists will explore CMS and state perspectives on how to build an effective and suc-

cessful health home for individuals with serious mental illness or addictions.

Then, following the information-filled day, the ABH Hill Day Delegation will spend June

26 meeting with the Massachusetts Congressional delegation. Remember, you need

not be a policy expert to impact Congress; you need only be a passionate advocate.

Interested in joining ABH at Hill Day in Washington, D.C. on June 25-26? If so, contact

Vic DiGravio (VDiGravio@ABHmass.org or 508-647-8385, x 11). Additional infor-

mation on Hill Day is also available here.

Keeper’s Korner Keeper’s been digging through the policy papers again and found

that the Massachusetts Health Care Cost Trends Preliminary Re-

port released this month reveals that last year the Northeast region

had the highest premiums of any region across all plan types. The

Division of Health Care Finance and Policy’s annual Health Care

Cost Trends Public Hearing is schedule for June 4 through June 6.

Keeper is busy training

the next generation of

policy wonks.