Committee on Legislative Affairs (COLA)

January 20, 2016 Retreat Minutes
5:00-9:00 pm
NJPA Central Office

Members Present:

Axelbank, Jeffrey H PsyD (2019), Gorman, Ashley, PhD (2017)
(Secretary); Hagovsky, Mathias, PhD (2017)(COLA Chair);Hanbury, Raymond F PhD (2018); Lee, Alan J PsyD (2019); Newsome, Hulon, PsyD (2017) (COLA Past-Chair, NJPA President-Elect); Singer, Mark EdD (2018)(COLA Chair-Elect); Sofair-Fisch, Tamara PhD (2019); Weiss, Frank, PhD (2016); Zylik, Dominika MS (NJPAGS Representative) ; Boertzel-Smith, Keira JD (Executive Director);Bombardieri, Jon (Government Affairs Agent)

Members Absent: Dranoff, Erik PhD (2018), Lauer-Listhaus, Barbara, PsyD (2019),

______

I. Welcome and Introduction 5:00-5:15 pm (Hagovsky)

1. November Minutes – approved via e-vote

2. Introduction of New Chairs – (Newsome)

Attending state leadership next month—Keira Boertzel-Smith, Singer, and Newsome

3. Welcome New Members- Axelbank, Jeffrey H PsyD; Lee, Alan J PsyD; Sofair-Fisch, Tamara PhD, Zylik, Dominika MS (NJPAGS Representative)

4. The Structure of the Retreat

II. COLA Operations – 5:15 – 6:15 pm (Hagovsky, Singer, Bombardieri Boertzel-Smith)

  1. Training Document (Newsome)

Reviewed training document; COLA will meet Wednesday evenings 5-6 times/year 7-9pm; there will be an agenda prior to each meeting including a link to bill w/ sponsors; Expectation for members to review all bills and come ready to present position on assigned bill; All possible positions on bills described in training document; engaged in a discussion as to whether having psychologists outside of COLA reading bills would be useful. The confidentiality of COLA proceeding and materials was discussed, but the governing documents were not changed.

2. Bill Review and Subcommittee Assignments (Singer)

Subcommittee assignments will be sent out this week.
3. COLA Operations (Boertzel-Smith)

--Interact with COLA members through COLA listserv

--COLA appointments for 4 years

--guests may be present at COLA meetings

--reviewed confidentiality at COLA meetings; COLA discussions should be kept confidential until minutes are approved and published

--COLA will have a listserv liaison to disseminate legislative issues to NJPA members; important to provide transparency and openness to NJPA members regarding COLA matters

--This is the first year we are working towards Mental Health Day in May; preparation slated for April; in June, we discuss new members; September Steering Committee Meeting

4. Legislative Process (Bombardieri)

--role of GAA to push forward our agenda and look out for legislation which may run counter to our professions best interests; Bombardieri will communicate new bills to COLA; his group manually goes through all new bills proposed, and if bill impacts NJPA, the bill is marked and placed on a tracking list

--Subsequent to each COLA meeting, Bombardieri will communicate with sponsor of bills to pursue amendments, contact members of committee to discuss problems that our organization has with the bill, communicate our support of bills, etc

--Importance of COLA members attending legislative events throughout the year

--Important goal of NJPA to be available to legislators and staff

--GAA deals directly only with NJPA staff and COLA Chairs

**MARCH 23 COLA MEETING CHANGED TO MARCH 16

III. Full Group Discussion Part I – 6:15 – 6:30 pm
  1. Update - BOPE Regulations Subcommittee
--regulations sunset in 2016; COLA created a subcommittee to review regulations to address concerns and produce a list of proposed changes; these proposed changes were presented to the Board; Board suggested they would review minor changes as opposed to major changes to prevent the chance of major changes to regulations not being approved before existing regulations sunset, running the risk of operating without regulations following the sunset; Plan—contact Board for status update and set up timeline to discuss more extensive changes to the regulations
IV. Full Group Discussion Part II – 6:45 pm – 8:50pm
  1. 2016-2017 Legislative Priorities6:45 pm – 7:45 pm

Ideas: Telepsychology, Access to Mental Health Care (Medicaid), RxP, Medical Necessity
-Need to identify priorities but do not need to rank the priorities
--Telepsychology: per Bombardieri, telemedicine will be a big issue this year; recommends that best strategy is to introduce our own telepsychology bill with goal of merging our bill into the larger bill; potential legislators to support such a bill TBD; this bill has reasonable chance of moving forward; Working on telepsychology through regulations reform was discussed. Bombardieri will look into this for NJPA; This is also an APA priority
--Access to Mental Health Care (Medicaid): per Bombardieri, legislators seem more open to this bill, the bill passed out of the Assembly at end of session; Senator Vitale supports the bill; bill has momentum and willingness; Jeff Axelbank reviewed the following summary of bill:
--NJ has lowest Medicaid fees for mental health care in the country; therefore, very few providers participate, survey shows that only 8 providers in the state with over 1 million Medicaid subscribers in the state. The following proposed changes were requested:
1—increase Medicaid fees to market rate for evidence based services (those contained in a registry created by SAMSA; market rate not defined) Proposal to amend bill to define market rates and suggestion to tie to Medicare rates
2—Amend to reimburse any service provided by a licensed mental health provider, as opposed to having a registry of approved services
3—Allow Medicaid to reimburse students, interns, permit holders providing services to patients. This would increase access to care and promote participation in Medicaid. This may be a Medicaid regulations issue.
4-Loan forgiveness for early career psychologists who would be willing to see Medicaid patients.
Per Bombardieri, recommends meeting director of Medicaid, to discuss these proposed changes, particularly reimbursement of interns and students; This is also an APA priority
--RXP: per Bombardieri, senate sponsor Loretta Weinberg; hope to move out of assembly; Senate president is in support of legislation;
--Medical Necessity: narrowing scope of the bill; spoke with sponsor, he will reduce scope of bill; due to high costs associated with this bill; group engaged in discussion as to whether insurance companies have been more or less difficult in reimbursing psychological services
2016 COLA Developing Idea
Access and Continuity of Care
--improve access to single case agreements; improve transparency in adequacy of insurance networks--should there be a way to quantify adequacy of providers in insurance networks? This issue relates to access to care and continuity of care.
--Should out of network coverage be mandatory in insurance plans? Is this an issue where NJPA could collaborate with the medical society or social workers? Is there feasibility for this issue and if so should a coalition be formed to develop a bill?
--Proposed that this issue (Access and Continuity of Care/Out of Network Providers/Transparency of Insurance Plans) be put on agenda for next COLA meeting to explore long range planning and feasibility of this issue ; option of outreach to other groups
APA Request for NJPA member involvement -
per Jeff Axelbank, APA reached out to him seeking someone to participate in round table discussion on behalf of Congressman Frank Pallone regarding mental health privacy issues
2. (Full Group Discussion) 7:45 pm – 8:00 pm Drafting of Priorities to be presented to the NJPA Executive Board on February 19, 2016.
--Conclusion: 2016 legislative priorities (without ranking) include Medical Necessity, Rxp, Access to Mental Health Care (Medicaid), and Telepsychology
Bill Assignment Discussion -
--Discussion of bill assignments amongst COLA members as pertaining to sub-committees. Important to pair senior members of COLA with new members on bills; We will keep current framework for sub-committees and bill assignments although increased involvement from COLA members on bills not assigned to them is encouraged; it is acceptable for a COLA member to request a bill assignment if it’s in a COLA member’s area of interest or expertise.
3. Grassroots Efforts and Public Relations (Bombardieri) 8:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Trenton Day(s):opportunities to sit in committee meetings, presence of NJPA members in NJPA via small group participation; good opportunity to raise awareness of association
Mental Health Month Update: May is the National Mental Health Awareness Day; We will have a legislator introduce “May as Mental Health Awareness month”. This will be helpful in raising awareness; per Bombardieri --members could right some op-eds to raise awareness for mental health; draft legislation in place and will be introduced; controversy is not anticipated on this bill; should talk to legislators in March about doing depression screenings through their office; collaborate with affiliate groups;
Event Attendance: per Bombardieri, there has been a very good response from legislators when NJPA members attend events; COLA member attendance is preferred, and if COLA members are not available, then we will reach out to non-COLA NJPA members
V. COLA Retreat Conclusion 8:50 pm – 9:00 pm(Hagovsky)

Meeting Ended 8:35pm

Ashley Gorman