November and December Visits
The Early Intervention Provider Association welcomed two guests for its November meeting – Mary Coogan, Esq., President/CEO of Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) and Dr. Josephine Shenouda, Director of New Jersey’s Early Intervention System.
ACNJ works with local, state, and federal leaders to identify and implement changes that will benefit New Jersey’s children. Their work results in better laws and policies, more effective funding and stronger services for children and families. This means more children are given the chance to grow up safe, healthy, and educated. Mary talked to the group about building coalition with the EIPA through members involvement in certain local and statewide groups that ACNJ leads, in addition to EI being included in ACNJ’s annual NJ Kids Count which provide comprehensive data about child well-being to policymakers, advocates, grant-makers and the public to help inform critical decisions for children and families. EIPA is very excited to work with Mary and ACNJ to improve services for the infants, toddlers, and families we serve. To learn more about ACNJ go to their website at https://acnj.org/
Director Shenouda and the EIPA discussion focused on the Department’s rationale for the proposed elimination of vendors and move to a comprehensive system of service delivery by the end of this calendar year. Members provided the new director with historical information in addition to how this new policy could potentially negatively impact providers while not increasing the number of physical, occupational and speech language therapists in the field. It was a very informative discussion, and we appreciate Director Shenouda’s willingness and interest to consider our views. We look forward to continuing to work with Director Shenouda and DOH to improve our system of care for infants, toddlers, and families.
In December, Kyle Neeld, CPA, CGMA, PSA, Managing Director; Matthew Smierciak, CPA, Director; and Heather Tiernan, Manager, of Mercadien met with the QA Forum to present on the compliance oversight it is providing to DHS/DMHAS as part of the NJ’s corrective action plan based on findings from a federal OIG audit. The presentation included an overview of audit types, noncompliance risk, Mercadien’s HCBS Program, documentation requirements, some findings and observations from DDD provider agency reviews in addition to answering questions from participants. For IDD, Mercadien is performing site visits to agencies to ensure that they are complying with the CCP. They were sure to emphasize that if the services provided and billed for are not adequately supported with notes that talk about the services and how the individual is being supported, then they did not happen. Our thanks to Kyle, Matt and Heather for a very informative presentation.
In addition to program reviews, Mercadien services include Financial Statement Audit Readiness, Succession Planning, Special Projects, and Outsourced Accounting and CFO Services. For more information go to their website at www.mercadien.com
