The Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) is making an important improvement to the way services are coordinated for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in New York State, known as People First Care Coordination. This new model commences a shift to a new and improved service coordination program for people with developmental disabilities called Health Home Care Management.

Health Home Care Management will continue to provide the service coordination that people with developmental disabilities currently receive, but will also integrate coordination of other services, such as health care, wellness, behavioral, and mental health services through a single individualized Life Plan for each member. 

Health Home Care Management services will be coordinated by Care Coordination Organizations (CCOs), new entities formed by existing providers of developmental disability services. The Medicaid Service Coordination (MSC) program which is currently used to coordinate just developmental disabilities services will be replaced by this new service through People First Care Coordination. 

Six new Care Coordination Organizations have been identified to begin providing Care Management services on July 1, 2018:  

• Advance Care Alliance
• Care Design NY
• LIFEPlan
• Person Centered Services
• Prime Care Coordination

• Tri-County Care

The new organizations will be staffed by Care Managers, and to ensure the continuity of care, in many cases the new Care Managers will be current Medicaid Service Coordinators who will receive additional training for this new role. Care Managers will help coordinate services across systems, including OPWDD, the Department of Health, OASAS, and the Office of Mental Health, providing people with developmental disabilities, and their families, with one place to plan all of their service needs. There will be no changes to a person’s supports and services as this transition from MSC to Health Home Care Management takes place, unless changes are requested by the individual receiving services.

“Over the past several years, OPWDD has worked to offer New Yorkers with developmental disabilities and their families more control, flexibility and opportunities for innovative supports customized to their abilities and needs,” said OPWDD Acting Commissioner Kerry A. Delaney. “People First Care Coordination provided through the Health Home Care Management program will help New York better address people with more complex needs, provide consistency in planning and allow for better information sharing across service systems, resulting in more holistic service planning and improving services overall.”

People with developmental disabilities who do not want to receive comprehensive care management can choose to receive Basic HCBS Plan Support which will also be offered by CCOs. Basic HCBS Plan Support will be a very limited coordination option.