Early August Updates from the CMHC!

Happy Friday! A couple of announcements to share:

Federal Provider Relief Fund:

Funding available for providers who bill directly for Minnesota Medicaid or CHIP programs

As part of its ongoing efforts to provide financial relief to healthcare providers impacted by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is announcing an application deadline extension for the Phase 2 general distribution to Medicaid, Medicaid managed care, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and dental providers. HHS also plans to allow certain Medicare providers who experienced challenges in the Phase 1 Medicare General Distribution application period a second opportunity to receive funding. Both groups will have until Friday, August 28, 2020 to apply.

The federal Provider Relief Fund is still available for certain behavioral health providers to help maintain services. Providers should apply if they billed directly for either Minnesota Medicaid, or CHIP programs, or Medicaid-managed care plans for health care-related services and if they have not already received funds from the Provider Relief Fund.

Providers are encouraged to apply even if they are not sure about their eligibility.
Click here for more information and how to apply.

Resources

Upcoming DHS (MN) Virtual Town Hall Meetings on Provider Experience with Managed Care

Approximately 80% of people on Medical Assistance receive their health care through managed care. If Minnesota is going to be successful in reducing health outcome disparities for people on Medical Assistance, we must listen to community members and providers about what works and doesn’t work with managed care.

We want to learn from providers about the people they serve, how health plans support their efforts to address their patients’ needs around the social drivers of health, and where and how health plans create barriers to providing integrated care that successfully addresses the whole person and whole family. We also want to hear about the financial and operational aspects of contracting with managed care and the benefits or burdens to community providers.

DHS is dedicated to establishing ongoing community engagement to inform managed care procurement and contracting. The upcoming virtual town hall meetings represent a first opportunity to provide input, but by no means the last opportunity.

Register to attend the one of the Virtual Town Halls for Managed Care Procurement and Medicaid Providers WebEx Event. Click one attendee link below to register:

Please note, you may need to copy and paste the link into a Chrome browser for the best results. If you have technical questions, please send an email to [email protected]

Hennepin County CHIP Mini-Grants

Hennepin County Community Health Improve Partnership of Hennepin County (CHIP) invited residents of Hennepin County to apply for a mini grant of $250 to $300 to address racial disparities in community mental wellbeing and housing stability. A total of $3000 is available.

Any resident of Hennepin County is eligible, but no organizations. Please note that this is not an application for individual or family assistance; they are looking for creative ideas and solutions for people’s communities.

The deadline is next Wednesday, August 12 at 4 PM; see the attached document for more details & spread the word! Here is a short video clip from CCX TV of two grantees from their first round so you can see ideas people came up with: https://ccxmedia.org/news/hennepin-county-issues-mini-grants-to-help-immigrant-communities/ 

CMHC COVID-19 Relief Funds

The application submission period for the Provider Relief Fund ends today (August 7th) at 6:00 PM. Please submit all final materials by this time. See information here: https://hccmhc.com/covid-19-relief-funds/provider/

Applications for the Family Relief Fund are currently under review. We will notify applicants of decisions as soon as the review process has been completed. Thank you all for your patience! (Please share the word with your providers, case managers, social workers, families you work with, etc.)


Contact Etonde or Laura with any questions or opportunities to share!