Richard's Blog

 Posts Tagged ‘OPWDD’

Therap will be hosting a regional conference in Syracuse, NY November 7-8, 2012. The  Conference will be in the Central NY DDSO region of OPWDD.

We have other conferences for New York providers regarding our developmental disability software including in Cortland, NY in November 2011, the National Conference in  Northern New Jersey in Febrary 2012, Elmira, NY in May 2012 and Buffalo, NY in August 2012.

The conference will be held at the Ramada Syracuse.

Check our website for additional information.

Therap will be hosting a conference on May15-16, 2012 in Elmira, Chemung County, NY for agencies serving people with Developmental Disabilities and interacting with OPWDD and OMIG. This will be held in the Finger Lakes DDSO but will be appropriate for people from various DDSO’s.

A reminder that Therap has a conference in Cortland, NY coming in November 2012 and also our National Conference in East Hanover, NJ which is in the New York metro area.   We also will be having a conference in Buffalo, NY in August 2012.  The location of an expected November 2012 New York conference will be announced later.

The Elmira conference will be at the Elmira Riverview Holiday Inn.

Additional information is available or will be available on these conferences on our website.

I just got back from the annual NYSRA conference in Albany, NY.

It was nice to see so many agencies I have talked with over the years who are now up and running with Therap. It was particularly nice in that I was able to attend the conference with my father.

I used to attend more of the New York conferences including NYSARC, NYSACRA and NYSRA. Kevin Lightle generally attends those conference for Therap now – but he was somewhere else today so I got to attend.

Years ago the questions were often about res hab and day hab and isp and msc plans. Now that Therap has so much of those issues solved and incorporated in the system, I was getting questions about 1115 which is not even fully out yet from OPWDD.

Therap will be hosting a conference in Buffalo New York from August 24-25, 2011.

The focus is on Therap modules for New York agencies providing services to people with Developmental Disabilities served by OPWDD.

A schedule will be posted online.  Also look to Kevin Lightle’s blog for more information as well.  There also is a New York State page on the Therap website.

Agencies which are members of DDAWNY, NYSARC, NYSACRA and NYSRA typically find these New York Therap developmental disabilities software conferences of interest.

This conference is an additional conference added to the almost monthly user groups in New York State. In addition, we will continue to have a New York track at our national provider administration conference to be held in the Metro New York Area.

Along with New York State – we are moving to change our references to OPWDD – the NYS Office for People With Developmental Disabilities.

There are a number of forms and places this needs to be changed in Therap.  We have received some comments from users about when we will transition to the new OPWDD name.  Basically we will revise the forms and information on our website as we receive information about the forms changing at the state.   We don’t want to get ahead of the state and have submissions disallowed as we use a form they have not gotten around to designing yet.

I just checked on the state website – and it still directs to www.omr.state.ny.us.  I haven’t checked all of their official forms. I did check on their website – and for example the OMR 147 Revised 10/08 is still listed on the official website on http://www.omr.state.ny.us/wt/images/ir/wt_form_147.pdf.

My old blog posts will still refer to OMRDD as that was how they were written.

This week we have a Therap Information Session in Brooklyn, NY called Technology for OMRDD Providers.  This is designed for potential users of Therap to learn more about Therap. This is not designed for existing users. The program is being run in conjunction with the Brooklyn Multicultural Task Force.

July 27-29, 2010 in Baltimore, Maryland we will have another Side-by-Side Technology Conference with College of Direct Support, Rest Assured and Web Footed Friends. This is a good opportunity to hear from a number of different vendors for the developmental disability community. In addition there will be beginner and advanced sessions for current Therap users. This conference is designed for both existing and potential users.

On August 4-5, 2010 in Denver, Colorado we will be having a Therap Regional Conference. This is mostly designed for existing users. There will be beginning and advanced sessions on various modules.

Most conferences and sessions we run during the year are one of the three types described above. We have run Regional conferences this year in North Dakota and Montana and have one coming in October in Maine.  We have run Therap Information Sessions throughout the country – ranging from California to Missouri to Connecticut and points in between.

The two other types of sessions or conferences we typically have are user groups and our annual Provider Administrators conference.

User groups are either in person or on the phone. They typically are for agencies in a local area to discuss issues including state requirements with each other and with a Therap representative.

The national provider administrator conference this year should have over 300 attendees discussing a wide range of topics. This is generally the best conference for expert users to meet with each other. It also has the most choices on general how-to use modules sessions.

We will be hosting a Therap Information Session in downtown Brooklyn, NY for OMRDD providers on July 25, 2010.

I would like to thank Claudia Morgan of Cay Community Services and the Brooklyn Multicultural Task Force for helping to arrange this.

Topics will include specific NY OMRDD / OMIG issues such as

a) electronic signatures and OMRDD/OMIG
b) documentation for MSCs,
c) integration of billing and service delivery,
d) online IPOPs, Res-Hab and Day-Hab plans, incident reporting

There will also be more general topics such as
a) sharing data with families,
b) health tracking including online medication administration records,
c) tracking training management and more.

Registration is free and we will provide lunch.  Additional information is on our website.

Today I am going to the YAI conference in New York. In addition to New York issues such as OMIG and OMRDD compiance – they have a mix of national attendees as well.

Today I will be there with Kris and Jason.

This is actually the one conference held each year I can walk to from my house.

Next week Justin, Kris and I will be attending the NYSARCA conference at the Sagamore in Lake George.

Justin will be presenting on use of Therap in New York with regards to OMRDD and OMIG regulations and compliance.

We have a relatively busy schedule with several presentations of our own as well as attending seminars from OMRDD and the NYSACRA Technology Committee.
If you will be at the conference, either set up and appointment or just stop by and see us.

I recently attended a NYSACRA conference in Saratoga Springs, NY. The big topic of conversation was a recently announced 5% rate cut by OMRDD. We have heard of similar cuts in other states – and these cuts are affecting other areas of government services including parks, schools and other social services.

The statistics I have seen from presentations and materials from the National Association of State Budget Officers and their website show this is really a national situation.

For the first time on record, states’ overall spending has declined in back-to-back years, sinking 4.8 percent last fiscal year and at least 4 percent in the current fiscal year,according to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO). The spending drop reflects a plunge in tax revenues last year that is expected to continue for at least two more years. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has estimated that $60 billion in shortfalls are looming for 2011 and $50 billion for 2012.

My response to these cuts probably reflects my experience in developing technology to address societal problems. I feel this is also an opportunity for the states and providers to review their systems and processes. HHS and the Obama administration (and also John McCain in his campaign) all talk about using technology to improve record keeping while reducing costs. Agencies using Therap are reporting savings in many areas.

We received one analysis from an agency that even after allocating 80% of computer and internet costs to Therap – and only factoring in savings from paper, faxes, storage, binders and document storage they were still savings money using Therap. We have seen invoices from agencies on reductions in their Xerox bill of 33% from before using Therap.

Agencies are reporting reductions in nursing or QA staff while reporting higher quality of analysis using Therap because of the speed of generating information and the reduction in driving to look at papers. In fact a number of agencies have said that it is using Therap which is letting them meet their budget cuts.

One major difference between the general community and providers serving people with developmental disabilities with regards to implementing technology is the tight requirements from Medicaid and state funding sources on looking at expenses for reimbursement. So an agency cannot just for example say they are adding technology and paying for that from savings in efficiency from shortened annual meetings because families can already see the data or an agency cannot replace nurses costs with internet or computers because they are savings nurses driving time. There are many complex budget and reimbursement issues which need to be considered. But perhaps this budget crisis will allow a good discussion of how to really have efficiencies rather than just cost cutting.

When representatives from OMRDD presented at the NYSACRA meetings they mentioned several times that they wanted to work with agencies to find efficiencies in their operations. When I discussed this with providers – a couple basically said that they really felt that they weren’t looking for efficiencies but just cost reductions. Thomas Friedman often writes about the difficulty in changing the mindset and attitudes of countries which have long opposed each other in military or cultural spheres. Is there a similar difficultly in bridging some of the gaps between providers and funders?

Working together I think agencies, funders, families and other interested parties can improve the quality of life for people with developmental disabilities – but working separately – they will just see and experience painful spending cuts. We are working with may providers and states which are making real positive progress in many areas. So I have seen that new ways of thinking and interacting are possible.