Alliance Boosts Support to Providers

The providers who make up our network are the front line healthcare professionals who ensure our members receive critical treatment and support, and their financial viability is of utmost concern during this challenging time, which has entailed some cost increases and negative revenue.

In the May issue of Alliance InTouch we told you about our Provider Financial Sustainability Program, which pumped over $7.2 million to about 100 of our larger outpatient providers and providers of community-based care, rate increases to operators of intermediate care facilities (ICFs) for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities, and rate hikes ranging from 15-30% for all child residential providers during the COVID-19 emergency. We committed $300,000 in financial support to providers who offer solely research-based behavioral health treatment, as well as reimbursements for Assertive Community Treatment Team (ACTT) providers who purchase mobile phones to work with our members remotely. We invested $1.1 million to expand access to inpatient and residential treatment beds, and increased access to transitional residential treatment beds for individuals dealing with substance use disorders.

More recently, recognizing that some provider organizations within our network have sustained impacts but have not qualified for this first wave of assistance, Alliance allocated $750,000 to provide support to network providers who experienced increased service delivery costs or a decline in revenue when many of the new social distancing guidelines and safety measures where ordered by the governor. Provider organizations that did not receive a financial stability payment from Alliance were able to apply for up to $15,000 in financial support to cover a percentage of lost revenue and/or increased service delivery cost. We’ve also committed financial support for our residential providers by extending the date of the rate enhancements to them through September 30 to support direct care staff and increased facility-related costs due to COVID.

And we want to better understand how the COVID pandemic has affected providers’ work, and what is and isn’t working in regards to telehealth/telephonic services, so we’ve asked providers to complete this short survey to help us make improvements and continue to support our network. The survey is open through July 10.