ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog

If you pay attention to the news you will notice that Governor Cuomo is on a self congratulation tour for an on-time state budget.  However, what is not mentioned in his self congratulation is the systematic dismantling that is occurring with the State's Early Intervention program and the devastation to social service programs that is left in the wake of his policies. Families need to be aware because as of April 1 there are many providers around the State who are no longer sanctioned to be early intervention providers.  Additionally, for those who have elected to remain in the system, there has been an absolutely dysfunctional last minute document cram to get contracts in place and according to the Bureau of Early Intervention it seems that many providers were not even aware of the whole process.  Some of us have been blogging and talking about this for over a year - but the reality is that apparently there were a lot of providers who were not tuned in and had no idea...

I just got back from a meeting where the NYS Office of the Medicaid Inspector General informed a County that there was inadequate documentation of supervision and that a number of claims were therefore ineligible for reimbursement. At this exit interview I made the following speech to the OMIG auditors: Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this exit interview.  I have been an occupational therapist for over 25 years and I have experienced many audits from CARF, CORF, JCAHO, NYSDOH, IPRO, and many others.  Generally when there is an allegation of violation there is also an accompanying citation of the regulation that was violated.  That citation is particularly useful for the provider community because that allows the provider to access the precise information on what is required, and that empowers the provider to offer the information to the auditor.  The information on the alleged violations on lack of adequate supervision are rather imprecise, an...

The New York State Early Intervention Coordinating Council was scheduled to meet a couple days ago but the meeting was cancelled and a subsequent video/teleconference was scheduled for today, 3/15.  The original meeting was rescheduled to 4/18, but that may still change based on member availability. It is difficult to not be cynical, but did they cancel the meeting to limit participation and comment prior to their 4/1 switchover when NY State takes responsibility from the Counties for administration of the program?  I asked people in the Bureau of Early Intervention in Albany and they told me that they thought that having a video/teleconference would allow more people to participate than if they just had the meeting in Albany.  What they failed to mention was that the new meeting would not be open for public comment or participation.  In other words, today's meeting was a one way communication and propaganda opportunity for the Department of Health. During the...