FY 2020 annual report

A Y E A R L I K E N O O T H E R 21 In the Children’s Practice Group, the long-standing issue of children’s screening services took on a new approach, with the Mental Health Emergency Services Association Chairs Albert Bassetti, MA, LPC, Director of Emergency Services, Hunterdon Medical Center/Behavioral Health, and Jennifer Plews, Senior Program Director, Psychiatric Emer- gency Services, Acenda Integrated Health, joining the group for a discussion on how advocacy around children’s emergency services should proceed. Children’s needs in this regard were identified, as were the current gaps in services and the many creative solutions implemented in counties around the state. A survey has been developed to gather more detail on the various collaborations and inno- vative programs at the county level to both inform and add detail to the continued advocacy efforts for children’s emergency mental health services. On multiple occasions, the Children’s Practice Group also hosted DCF Commissioner Christine Norbut Beyer, MSW, Deputy Commissioner of Operations Katie Stoehr, MA, and CSOC Assistant Commission- er Greene. Following are highlights of the Information Technology (IT) Project’s groups’ achievements: The Billing Practice Group continued its high level of activity through the NJAMHAA Groupsite, providing valuable information and advice to fellow members including timely conversations about fee-for-service billing changes and very active discussions on billing requirements and coding for telehealth. The Compliance and Performance Improvement Committee demonstrated an equally high level of activity through their NJAMHAA Groupsite and they had guest speakers present on various topics, including fraud, waste, abuse and compliance; and prepared for implementation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Checklist on Preparedness in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. This committee also started the Spotlight Presentation Series, through which agencies present on topics they would like to spotlight and share with the committee. The series was launched with Victoria Hewitt, Privacy Specialist on HIPAA Security, Acenda Integrated Health, presenting on Champions for Healthcare Quality Assurance and Compliance. The NJAMHAA Human Resources Practice Group has joined forces with the Human Resources Committee of the New Jersey Alliance of Children, Youth and Families as both associations have many of the same members. The staff of these agencies recommended that both associations meet together on a quarterly basis to save time and to work on issues more collaboratively. The committee listened to presentations on employee benefit programs and changes in federal and state employment laws. The Alliance shared the results of its salary survey with the committee this fiscal year, as well. The IT Professional Advisory Committee has held steadfast that the data collection mechanism for the Uni- fied Services Transaction Form needs to be updated to be consistent with codes that are included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV and International Statistical Classification of Dis- eases-10. This year, members of the IT Project secured two meetings with Valerie Mielke, MSW, Assistant Commissioner, Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS), to bring this to the forefront. DMHAS assured NJAMHAA that this would be a priority moving forward (prior to the pandemic). The com- mittee also assisted with modifying the Quarterly Contract Monitoring Reporting system to align several of the definitions with the data that needs to be collected. N e w J e r s e y A s s o c i a t i o n o f M e n t a l H e a l t h a n d A d d i c t i o n A g e n c i e s , I n c . IT Project Your guide to tomorrow N J A M H A A