NJAMHAA News Spring 2021

spring 2021 9 The group contributed significantly to NJAMHAA’s advocacy for higher rates for children’s services, which has been successful. For example, the FY2021 Revised State Budget includes a rate increase for CMOs as part of a $45 million investment in the Children’s System of Care that began in January 2021 and is annualized in Governor Phil Murphy’s proposed FY2022 budget as an $108 million appropriation. The Children’s Committee still exists, although it has been renamed the Children’s Practice Group as the term “committee” was later used specifically for NJAMHAA’s operational committees, which consist solely of Board members. The Children’s Practice Group continues to meet with DCF staff on a regular basis. The former Hospital-Based Committee and several practice groups (for example, Clinical Documentation and Developmental Disabilities/Mental Illness) were folded into the current Adult Mental Health, Addictions and Children’s Practice Groups, which continue to address topics that were the focus of each of the previous groups. This was the result of streamlining that the NJAMHAA Board implemented in 2014. Another practice group that had been maintained is the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Practice Group, which was established in 1999 to address fiscal issues affecting all types of member organizations. Dr. Wentz reached out to Jim Cooney, MSW, LCSW, who is currently the CEO of Ocean Mental Health Services and a former NJAMHAA Board Chairto launch the CFO Practice Group. “We emphasized that mental health agencies are businesses and need to operate as businesses,” Cooney said, recalling his surprise that 30 people attended the first meeting. In fact, this group continues to have a strong turnout at every meeting. The CFO Practice Group’s greatest achievement was creating reform in the contracting process around 2001. “They built flexibility into contracts and many of those provisions, particularly the ability to move money around in our budgets, live with us today. DCF adopted these reforms when it was split off fromDHS,” Cooney said. More Groups Forged as NJAMHAA and the Behavioral Health SystemEvolve The Addictions Practice Group was created in 2010 when NJAMHAA added “Addictions” to its name to demonstrate its equal commitment to advocating on behalf of substance use treatment and mental healthcare providers. Over the years, this group has been very active on advocacy initiatives and succeeded, with the most recent examples being an increase in reimbursement for long-term residential services that went into effect on July 1, 2020, despite budgetary challenges, and waivers to allow for increased access to medication-assisted treatment. In 2014, the Adult Mental Health Practice Group was created as part of the streamlining effort noted earlier. This group frequently hosts guest presenters on a variety of important topics, such as serving clients with criminal charges and addressing related challenges in securing housing and employment; cultural change and its impact on operations and the bottom line; best practices for providing integrated care; accreditation; and workers’ compensation. Like all practice groups, this group significantly contributes to NJAMHAA’s impactful advocacy on the need to increase access to all services through adequate funding and supportive legislation and regulations. Recognizing the critical need for hospital- and community-based providers to collaborate in order to minimize hospitalizations, NJAMHAA established the Hospital Community Integration Council (HCIC) in 2015. The HCIC has held conferences to NJAMHAA wrestled with incredibly complex issues, leading to implementation and protection of patients’ rights. - Al Bassetti, MA, LPC, Director, Employee Assistance Program and Emergency Services, Hunterdon Medical Center and Chair, Mental Health Emergency Services Association [continued on page 10] Immense Value from Practice Groups