Illinois Opioid Remediation Advisory Board
Workforce Development & Infrastructure Workgroup
October 12, 2023
Virtual Meeting Held Via Zoom
Meeting Minutes
Workforce Development & Infrastructure Workgroup Members
Blanca Campos, Community Behavioral Healthcare Association (Chair)
Chelsea Laliberte Barnes, Live4Lali
Angie Hampton, Egyptian Health Department
Kristin Hanblock, Rosecrance
Theressa Perdieu, CEAD Council (DBA Hour House)
John Horsely, Kenneth Young Center
Mila Tsagalis, DuPage County Health Department
Lora Passetti, Chestnut Health Systems
Chris Schaffner, JOLT Harm Reduction
Dr. Trenton Fedrick, Habilitative Systems, Inc.
Michelle Saddler, Kittleman and Associates
Tom Wright, MD, Rosecrance
Angel Cruz, Peoria County Sheriff's Office
Jen Nagel-Fischer, The Porchlight Collective, SAP
Bessie Alcantara, Alternatives, Inc.
Welcome and Roll Call
* Sue Pickett, PhD of Advocates for Human Potential, Inc., facilitator, and Blanca Campos, Workforce Development & Infrastructure Workgroup Chair, welcomed the group. Roll call was taken. All members were present except for Chelsea Laliberte Barnes, Lora Passetti, Dr. Trenton Fedrick, Dr. Tom Wright, Angel Cruz, and Bessie Alcantara. Quorum was established.
Review and Approval of September 11, 2023 Meeting Minutes
* Angie Hampton made a motion to approve the minutes from the September 11, 2023 meeting. Kristin Hanblock seconded the motion. All members present voted in favor of approving the minutes. The motion passed.
Collecting Information on Certified Recovery Support Specialist (CRSS) Positions and Compensation
- At the last workgroup meeting, the group discussed potential recommendations regarding CRSS pay and benefits, including setting a compensation standard for various positions, credentials, and experience. The group decided to draft a survey to collect information on CRSS salaries, benefits, hours required, and setting (i.e., remote vs. in-person) to help inform a recommendation on how to support the CRSS workforce.
- Ms. Campos asked whether settlement funds can be used to conduct a salary survey. IDHS/SUPR Chief of Staff Dr. Rivera said that research is one of the approve categories for settlement funds; however, settlement funds cannot be used to require grantees to pay staff a certain salary
- A member shared resources that provide information on peer payment standards. The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control outlines payment amounts and methods to use when engaging peer workers. Faces and Voices has a directory of peer recovery training and certification programs that provides detailed information on certification processes, competencies, and training requirements.
- A draft of the CRSS compensation survey will be shared with group members and discussed at the November workgroup meeting.
Priority Recommendations for the IORAB
- The group discussed a potential recommendation to support paid clinical internships and expand supervision for entry-level clinicians. Junior clinicians are managing more complex cases and are generally less prepared to provide direct services than their predecessors. Supervision requires more time and attention than in the past due workforce shortages. There needs to be more funding to support adequate supervision for these newer clinicians.
- Many providers are paying interns as part of their existing operations. Interns who are providing services within the provider's continuum of care are billing for those services. It would create an administrative burden for providers if interns were prevented from billing services directly through commercial insurers, Medicaid, or a Managed Care Organization (MCO) because they were being paid by another funding source.
- A possible challenge is funding through rates instead of grants. Supervision and delivery of services are driven by a rate and that rate is supposed to be inclusive of everything, including supervision and any cost incurred for delivery of service. Recommending funds to be used in a grant-like fashion would be completed because the rate is inclusive of supervision.
- The complexity in revenue sources poses a barrier to implementing this recommendation. It was suggested that the committee develop a process map that includes each clinician by program and compensation structure to help identify potential conflicts attached to creating new revenue sources, such as grants for enhanced supervision. Ms. Campos mentioned that her agency developed something similar as a proof of concept for supervision focused on children's mental health services that she will share with the committee.
- There are smaller, grass roots organizations, such as harm reduction agencies, that are not eligible for fee-for-service contracts. These agencies are unable to offer livable wages and fringe benefits to employees, most of whom are people with lived or living experience. Moreover, there are sectors of the behavioral health workforce, such as harm reduction, that are not incentivized to train and hire interns. As the workgroup begins to draft recommendations, there needs to be intentionality about how this funding will build the harm reduction workforce. Settlement funds need to go towards building out programs centered around people with lived experience (PLE) rather than continuing to build on robust systems of care that already exist and can bill to Medicaid. It is important to ensure that money is funneled to these more non-traditional organizations providing critical services. The group will reserve time at the next meeting to discuss how to support non-traditional service providers and develop a recommendation around this.
- The committee discussed next steps for moving the recommendation forward:
- Michelle Saddler made a motion to move the recommendation forward to develop language around using settlement funds to support paid internships and supervision of junior staff. Mila Tsagalis seconded the motion. All members present voted in favor of moving the recommendation forward. The motion passed. Dr. Pickett's team at AHP will draft the recommendation to be shared at the next work group meeting.
- Dr. Rivera suggested that the group works with the Office of Opioid Settlement Administration (OSA) to determine how to draft a recommendation that is feasible and can be implemented with settlement funds.
Public Participation
* No members of the public attended the meeting.
Adjourn
* John Horsely made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Chris Schaffner seconded the motion. All group members in attendance voted in favor of the motion. The motion passed. Ms. Campos thanked participants and adjourned the meeting. The next meeting of the Workforce Development and Infrastructure Working Group is Monday, November 13, 2023 from 11 am-12 pm.
