Weekly Update August 30, 2024
IMPORTANT UPDATE!
Annual Walk-A-Mile Event to take place September 17, 2024
The date for this event was moved from Thursday, September 12th, 2024 to Tuesday, September 17th, 2024
The 2024 INFORMATION PACKET is now available! Click here to download!
Each year, we draw more than 2,000 advocates from across Michigan to the Capitol Building to support public behavioral healthcare. This rally aims to highlight the need for increased funding for mental health services, raises awareness of behavioral health needs in health and policy discussions and works to banish behavioral health stigmas. There are more than 300,000 citizens in Michigan who seek behavioral health services. Join us as we rally together on the Capitol Lawn for increased mental health funding and the need for behavioral health to be continually included in policy discussions.
Why We Rally…
To enhance public awareness, because legislators need to know that Mental Health Matters.
To promote mental health and wellness, because we can make a difference!
To put an end to the stigma related to mental illness and developmental disabilities, because Michigan does not have parity (equality) between mental health and physical health care coverage.
Work of Northern Lakes CMH Authority highlighted in latest stories in partnership with Issue Media Group
The latest news story highlighting the innovation and successes of Michigan’s public mental health system, is made possible by the partnership of CMHA, a number of its members, and the Issue Media Group (IMG). This story, Behavioral Health Homes: A transformative approach in Michigan highlights the innovative work being done at Northern Lakes CMH Authority.
This story, along with the growing list of solutions journalism stories centered around the work of Michigan’s public mental health system, can be found at: https://cmham.org/newsroom/
This partnership, with the Issue Media Group (IMG), is built around the concept of “solutions journalism” – providing news about innovative and concrete ways that communities, across Michigan, are addressing the needs of their residents along a number of dimensions – healthcare, economic development, education, the arts, to name a few. Solutions journalism investigates and explains, in a critical and clear-eyed way, how people try to solve widely shared problems. While news sources and many of us typically define news as “what’s gone wrong,” solutions journalism runs counter to that definition by covering the innovative responses to identified needs and problems.
This partnership ensures that the work of Michigan’s public mental health system is highlighted in IMG’s large suite of solutions journalism-focused publications.
If your organization would like to be a part of this effort, via the purchase of a partnership share and the active participation in the generation of stories for these local and statewide electronic newspapers, contact Bob Sheehan at rsheehan@cmham.org or Paul Schutt at paul@issuemediagroup.com
You can subscribe, at no cost, to these publications, on the websites of each of these publications. The list of partner publications and their websites are provided below:
Listen to latest ‘Connections’ Podcast
Melissa A McKinstry serves on the Board of Directors for the Right Door for Hope, Recovery and Wellness in Ionia County. She has served in her position as Board Member for approximately fourteen years. Melissa has received services from the Right Door for the past forty-eight years. Concurrently with her work for The Right Door, Melissa serves on the CMHA Board of Directors as Co-chairperson of the Legislative and Policy Committee. Melissa lives each day by simply living it, despite being told at an early age that she would be doing well if she did nothing but continue to breathe. Melissa today says, she is a miracle living a meaningful life.
Redesign of ‘Weekly Update’ Newsletter
As you might have already noticed, the publication of our newsletter will look a little different. We are delighted to introduce a newly designed version of our weekly update email! We’ve revamped our newsletters to make them more user-friendly and accessible. Get the latest news, insights, and updates to our public mental health system with even greater clarity and ease.
With this improved layout, you’ll find it simpler to search for keywords** and to navigate through each publication chronologically. One specific item to note, the creation of these newsletters are now solely constructed and published on the CMHA website. The email blast will now be condensed to only include article titles and a teaser sentence. Each article in the email is linked to the publication on our website where the entire document can be viewed in full. Once on this page, to access the months previous articles, simple follow the linked path located under the main navigation bar.
The Weekly Update home page now includes collapsible headers. To quickly see the previous week’s update just click on that week’s date. To the right, you will see an Archives column that will include all previous month’s editions.
Our goal is to enhance your reading experience while keeping you better informed and making it easier for you to access necessary information and resources. We’re excited for you to experience these enhancements and hope they make your weekly updates more engaging and informative.
**To search for text within a webpage use the “Control Find” keyboard shortcut. Press and hold Ctrl+F on your keyboard to open a search bar.
Connections
Connections purpose is to be an avenue for the exchange of information that includes people’s dreams, stories, concerns and successes. Its intent is to connect us all – the individuals who sit around the board room table, our customers, our administrators, caregivers, and our partners in the communities in which we live.
Recipient Rights Booklets
The Mental Health Code states that Community Mental Health Service Providers are required to distribute Recipient Rights Booklets to each recipient receiving services. To place an order with CMHA please visit our websites bookstore page.
‘BoardWorks’ Videos Online
The CMHA BoardWorks program was developed to assist Board members in fulfilling their obligations as CMH leaders, directors of policy, and advocates for those they serve.
State & Federal Developments
MDHHS Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) Implementation go-live date moved to September 9, 2024
Below are the contents of a recently issued communication from MDHHS related to the delay in the state date of Michigan’s Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) system.
Behavioral Health, MI Choice, and MI Health Link EVV go-live is extended to Monday, 9/9/2024.
MDHHS is going live with a soft launch of EVV for Behavioral Health, MI Choice, and MI Health Link. That means EVV is required as outlined in policy bulletin MMP 24-21, there are no financial penalties if EVV information is not reported through the state’s EVV or other third-party EVV system until a date to be identified by MDHHS. Agency providers and their caregivers should use the soft launch period to review training tools, get used to the EVV system, and troubleshoot problems.
During the soft launch period, Behavioral Health, MI Choice, and MI Health Link providers will continue to submit claims the same way they do today.
While the EVV soft launch is not intended to result in changes to the Community Mental Health Services Program (CMHSP), MI Choice Waiver Agencies (WA), or Integrated Care Organizations (ICO) billing guidelines, providers should contact their CMHSP, WA, or ICO with any billing guideline questions.
What Does This Mean for You?
On 9/9/2024 the HHAeXchange Agency Provider Portal will be available with your payer data. Agencies will be able to review their member and authorization data sourced from their payer (CMHSP, WA, or ICO) system.
Continuing EVV Preparation
No later than 9/16/2024 agency providers should log into the HHAeXchange Agency Provider Portal and become familiar with the EVV tools available, and if choosing to use schedules begin creating schedules in the HHAeXchange Agency Provider Portal.
Beginning 9/16/2024 agency providers should start training and preparing their caregivers to ensure they are ready to use EVV tools for clocking in and out no later than 10/7/2024.
MDHHS will provide the CMHSP, WA, ICO, and network providers with guidance on the end of the soft launch and the start of tying payments to EVV at a later date.
Questions?
To stay up to date on EVV in Michigan visit www.Michigan.gov/EVV
For questions or help, call HHAeXchange at 1-866-576-1179 or visit the HHAeXchange Michigan Information Center website at https://www.hhaexchange.com/info-hub/michigan
For HHAeXchange Learning Management System (LMS) tools and resources visit https://hhaexchange.docebosaas.com/learn
NACo develops messaging to support behavioral health continuum of care: rural and frontier county leaders
The National Association of Counties (NACo) recently developed a tool for the use of leaders in rural and frontier counties related to their work to support strong behavioral health care systems in their communities. The messaging resource is found here. Excerpts of that messaging resource are provided below:
Rural and frontier county leaders oversee the administration of services in counties with populations of 50,000 or fewer people. While only approximately 15 percent of the nation’s population lives in the 2,050 counties deemed ‘non-metropolitan’ or rural, these jurisdictions account for over 72 percent of the nation’s total land area.
These counties face a distinct set of challenges compared to their urban counterparts; less densely populated jurisdictions’ resources must serve diverse populations spread out across large distances. Rural and frontier county leaders are finding innovative ways to provide services and adapt resources to their communities’ unique needs by utilizing clinical crisis response teams, expanding certified community behavioral health clinics (CCBHCs) and leveraging law enforcement partnerships with supplemental training.
LEO Explains Mandatory Sick Time Changes
While the main discussion surrounding the Michigan Supreme Court decision over the minimum wage law has been the pay, all employers would also need to provide 72 hours of sick time and LEO broke down the new requirements during a webinar today.
Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) Deputy Director of Labor Sean EGAN said that all employers would be required, at minimum, to provide nearly two full weeks of paid sick leave. The only exception would be federal employees.
“Feb. 21, 2025, the Paid Medical Leave Act will no longer exist, and employers will be covered by the Earned Sick Time Act,” Egan said.
Egan gave the presentation to explain how the new act would work and answered many questions. He said LEO anticipates about 1.4 million workers in a “significant percentage” of businesses would be gaining sick leave time under the act.
Employees accrue time under the new act at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked. For employers with 10 or more employees, that is up to 72 hours of paid time. Employers with fewer than 10 workers are required to provide 40 hours of paid time off and 32 hours of unpaid leave.
Egan said the 10-employee threshold includes temporary employees, seasonal employees and any limited-time employees, including leased employees.
“Once you hit that 10-employee limit, meaning employees can accrue 72 paid hours of leave, you’re in that for the remainder of the current year and the next year, pretty much, even if you fall back below that 10-employee threshold,” Egan said.
While employees can get more than 72 hours by working more time or by carrying the sick time over from year to year, the employer can limit the amount of time used per year to 72 hours.
The amount of time provided in the act sets the minimum amount that all employers are allowed to provide. Any employer can go above and beyond the required amount with any exceptions, as long as 72 hours falls within the coverage parameters.
“There are no exemptions in the act for age or anything else. If you are an employee you are covered,” Egan said.
With accrual, the employers can give the 72 hours up front, without having to require the hours accrue. They can also say someone in the first 90 days of their employment can’t use the sick time.
The act also sets how the sick time can be used and defines some of the ways that can be set to how the time off can be used.
Egan said it can be used for yourself and family members dealing with physical or mental health issues, or some other type of injury. It also covers safety issues for people who are dealing with a domestic violence situation. Parents can use the time to deal with school issues pertaining to children with physical or mental health problems. There is also a public health school closure reason.
The employers can require certain types of notifications. If the leave is foreseeable, the employer can ask for up to a seven-day notice. Emergencies need to be notified as soon as practical.
If the employee is off for three days or more, the employer can require a doctor’s note, but the employer would have to pay the full amount for the doctor’s note.
“The employer can only require documentation once it meets that ‘three or more consecutive days of leave,’ so for one day, the employer under the act would not be able to require a note,” Egan said.
The 72 hours of sick time does not need to be paid out if the employee leaves the company.
“The act is very specific, and it says that this leave does not need to be paid out upon separation, termination, or leaving employment,” he said.
Independent contractors would end up being considered both employee and employer. Egan said the point at which the contractor is incorporated is the point at which they would be covered, and any of the people they employ would be considered employees.
“We think of an independent contractor as an individual. That’s a title that could apply to other situations. So you’d want to make sure that you’re looking at it from that perspective,” he said.
Records would need to be kept about sick time, because employees have a right to file a complaint within three years of a violation.
Employees also have the right to private legal action against employers if they are retaliated against for using the 72 hours of sick time. Egan said there is also something that can be done by going through the LEO Wage and Hour Division.
“There is a broader enforcement remedy available to employees for employers that might not be following the act,” Egan said.
The one area which Egan said still needed to have some legal expertise to weigh in about was if the employer was not located in Michigan, but the employee was working remotely in the state.
“We may be back with you all in a live Q&A when we start to sort out more of the details about in-state, out-of-state, and a couple of the other questions that we’re getting that require a little bit more of our attention,” Egan said.
Links to resources:
LEO – Earned Sick Time Act (michigan.gov) | Earned Sick Time Act Presentation Slides (michigan.gov)
Education, Sponsorship & Exhibition
25th Annual Substance Use and Co-Occurring Disorder Hybrid Conference
Sept. 16-17, 2024
Suburban Collection Showplace, Novi, or Virtual
Attendees – Register Here *Deadline: Friday, September 6th, 2024
Exhibitors and Sponsors – Register Here
CMHA Events
To search all upcoming CMHAM events, including conferences, trainings and webinars click here.
Great Lakes Mental Health Technology Transfer Center
Resources from Great Lakes MHTTC
CMHA is the Michigan partner with the SAMHSA funded Great Lakes Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC). That partnership provides Michigan’s behavioral health community with access to cutting edge education and training offerings from across the country and the Great Lakes region while also allowing CMHA to expand its catalog of education and training offerings to its members and allies. For more about the Great Lakes MHTTC click here.
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