Care for Vulnerable New Yorkers is Jeopardized by Proposals in FY 2025 Executive Budget
**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
January 23, 2024
Contact: Tyler Gilbert, tyler@marathonstrategies.com
Procurement of State’s Managed Long Term Care Programs and Cuts to Quality Funding Would Negatively Impact Critical Care for New Yorkers
NEW YORK – Joe Twardy, president of Nascentia Health’s health plans, today provided written testimony on behalf of the New York State Coalition of Managed Long Term Care Plans at the Joint Legislative Budget Hearing in Albany.
In the wake of MLTC reforms adopted following last year’s enacted budget that are resulting in the closing of eight MLTC plans – reforms that have had a disproportionate impact Upstate – Twardy highlighted the need to preserve and protect New York’s MLTC program. The following are excerpts of Twardy’s remarks:
On the Critical Role MLTC Plans Play in Lives of Vulnerable New Yorkers: “MLTC Coalition plans are essential to the health, wellbeing, and independence of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers enrolled in the program. Coalition plans offer personalized care management services and other vital supports to Medicaid consumers, ensuring that their health and personal care needs are met in a way that allows them to live as independently and safely as possible when they can no longer perform everyday activities on their own.”
On the Success of the MLTC Program: “There is more than a decade of data demonstrating how MLTC plans have improved the lives of the State’s most vulnerable New Yorkers, helping residents be safely served in their community and avoid institutionalization.”
On Previous Reforms Winnowing the Market: “With the SFY24 MLTC reforms already reshaping the MLTC plan landscape (reducing the number of plans by more than a third, from 22 plans to 14), now is not the time for any further disruption to the program and reduction in enrollees’ choice of plan.”
On the Need to Reject Medicaid Managed Care Procurement: “The Executive Budget proposes having the Department of Health (DOH) conduct a procurement of all Medicaid managed care programs, including its MLTC programs. This proposal, which was already rejected by both houses in the SFY23 budget process, has the potential to limit plan choice, significantly disrupt enrollee coverage and care, negatively impact local economies, and drain critical DOH resources, which are already stretched very thin.”
On the Need to Restore and Make Permanent Critical Investments in Medicaid Managed Care Quality: “The State’s MLTC Quality Incentive Program (QIP) funds critical investments in provider quality and community-based initiatives that improve health outcomes for the State’s most vulnerable populations. The QIP also funds essential services to members that improve members' health outcomes, reduce health disparities, and increase quality of life. We urge the Legislature to reject the Governor’s proposal to defund these critical Medicaid quality programs and to support the inclusion of Senate Bill S.7992 in any enacted budget to ensure sustainable funding for what has become a powerful tool for driving high-quality and high-value health care for the State’s lowest income residents.”
The full statement can be found here.
For more information on the NYS Coalition of MLTC Plans, visit www.MLTCcares.com.
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The New York State Coalition of Managed Long Term Care (MLTC) Plans is made up of health plans that specialize in the care of adults with chronic illnesses or disability requiring long term care. Through intensive, person-centered care planning and coordination, MLTC plans help vulnerable Medicaid consumers stay in their homes and communities as long as possible. The Coalition is committed to preserving and protecting New York State’s Medicaid Managed Long Term Care program and the vital services and supports it provides to consumers and families.