NJAMHAA-FY23-Annual-Report

35 NJAMHAA Annual Report FY 2023 Breaking Barriers to Care through Use of Technology NJAMHAA’s Information Technology (IT) Project is continuously available to support internal and external members’ staff with technical support issues, project planning, new building moves, transitioning agencies to Microsoft Azure cloud services, answering calls made to the help desk and helping organizations anticipate and move to the future, breaking barriers in digital technology. The IT Project remains a vital resource to providers and those they serve. All of the IT Project’s services are essential to help providers eliminate obstacles, for example, for individuals to receive integrated, coordinated care from multiple healthcare professionals. With confidence in the expertise of the IT Project, the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) requested assistance from the IT Project to review agencies’ submissions for reimbursement for hardware and software purchases they had to make to support telehealth and access to services. Beginning in January 2022, the IT Project staff did the reviews for expense feasibility and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, but DMHAS staff made the final decisions. The program, known as the DMHAS Substance Abuse Block Grant COVID 19 Supplemental Reimbursement (DSCOVRS) Program, has available funding for substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers under the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant funding, and a similar program under those funded through the Mental Health Block Grant. The SUD DSCOVRS program is planned to be extended through FY2024. This past year, the IT Project has continued to roll out Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) to enable numerous organizations to enhance e-mail security, as the past several years have seen a large rise in spam, phishing e-mails and attacks to hack e-mail addresses. MFA provides an additional layer of protection to prevent login to e-mail accounts if any individuals’ passwords are compromised. The IT Project continues to use remote tools to provide support to members, including weekly server and network maintenance for contracted agencies. Remote operations included implementing Windows server updates; reviewing server, quarantine and third- party spam filter logs and correcting issues that were identified; IT Project Provides Members with Essential Technical Services OTP SMS Login Login MFA Authenticated Multi Factor Authentication a secure authentication without sacrificing the user experience