DMH is responsible for all enrollment and transition decisions, including prioritizing access to ACCS supervised housing settings, and facilitate movement to Independent Housing and transition to less intensive services. DMH will require ACCS Contractors to develop Treatment Plans targeting the Person’s needs and goals that led to enrollment and will conduct focused reviews at targeted intervals (Subsection 6.7) to ensure that ACCS Contractors are delivering services that result in the following: People are engaged and are not discharged from ACCS as a result of or homelessness. People are supported through Care Transitions and risk is mitigated and proactively addressed. Treatment is effective in addressing the Person’s needs and goals that led to enrollment, or additional needs identified while enrolled in ACCS. Barriers to movement to appropriate levels of care are identified and addressed. People transition to independent living and other services when appropriate. To meet the needs of Persons who require higher levels of support and supervision to remain safely in the community, some ACCS Contracts will include Intensive Group Living Environment Services (Intensive GLE Services). These are intensive treatment environments designed for specific populations with defined enrollment criteria and enhanced service components (Attachments Service Class Information: Service Class Agency Activity Code Service Name MM3 DMH 3054 Community Clinical Services 1.3 Anticipated Contracts to Be Awarded Through this RFR, DMH intends to award thirty two (32) ACCS Contracts throughout the Commonwealth. For each Contract, DMH has designated: The towns and cities to be served; The overall service capacity; Specific capacity for each Service Type (Integrated Team Only, Supervised Group Living or Supported Independent Environment with Integrated Team, Intensive Group Living Environment); and The capacity of each Supervised Group Living Environment, Supported Independent Environment and Intensive Group Living Environment location. This Contract information is set forth in Attachment B, included in the Bid’s COMMBUYS file. A Bidder may bid on one or more of the Contracts. However, H).
Department of Public Health (105 CMR 700.003). When applicable, medication administration is provided in all housing settings, including Independent Housing. Contractors are also responsible for certain medication reconciliation activities as set forth in Subsection 5.2.3.d. 5.1.9 Addiction Services. As part of the ongoing assessment process, Contractors have processes for screening, assessing, and reassessing substance use, addiction risk and addiction treatment needs. Substances may include illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine, club drugs and others; legal and socially sanctioned drugs including, but not limited to, marijuana and alcohol; prescribed medications such as benzodiazepines and opioids; and combinations of various drugs, tobacco, caffeine and others substances. Some people also struggle in similar ways with the use of food, gambling, technology and work, among other things. Contractors work collaboratively with Persons to understand how the use of substances and/or potentially addictive behavior impact the Persons in any of the following: financial, social, employment, educational, housing, physical or medical concerns, parenting ability, familial or intimate relationships, engagement with service providers and criminal justice involvement. At the direction of the Licensed Substance Abuse Clinicians, Contractors develop formulations that address the level of use and potential risk, the current impact of substances or potentially addictive behavior, and the Persons’ readiness for change. Licensed Substance Counselors and Recovery Coaches provide ongoing teaching and modeling to Teams/Intensive GLEs and provide direct interventions and supports to Persons. Contractors have strategies for working with Persons at different Stages of Change, addressing the consequences of use regardless of Stage of Change and supporting readiness, relapse prevention and long-term recovery. These strategies must include Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral for Treatment (SBIRT), Stages of Change model, Motivational Interviewing, and Harm Reduction. Strategies may also include other evidence based and promising treatment practices such as Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), Seeking Safety (), the Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model (TREM) (), and the self-help model Dual Recovery Anonymous (DRA). Contractors provide and/or coordinate with Care Coordination Entities to ensure Persons have access to clinical, self-help and peer, medication assisted treatment, and psycho-educational services that address addiction treatment and related issues (e.g., HIV, AIDS, Hepatitis C) and relapse
10.2 Contingency Funds A Contractor will be reimbursed for DMH approved Contingency Fund expenditures made pursuant to Subsection 5.8.3 on a cost reimbursement basis up to the applicable Contract’s Contingency Fund Annual Maximum Obligation Amount as identified in Attachment B. The Contract’s Contingency Fund Annual Maximum Obligation Amount is the maximum amount a Contractor can bill DMH for Contingency Fund expenditures in a given Fiscal Year. It is a Contractor’s responsibility to monitor the usage of contingency funds to ensure that funding is available throughout each Fiscal Year. Through its contract monitoring activities DMH will review contingency fund expenditures and balances (Subsections 8.9 and 8.10). DMH reserves the right to change the Contingency Fund Annual Obligation Amount for a Contract due to Contract utilization and/or the availability of funds. 10.3 Housing and Services Offsets Contractors must maximize offsets (e.g., SNAP Benefits, housing subsidies, charges for Residential Services and Supports pursuant to 104 CMR 30.06). The Contractor shall offset the total DMH obligation for occupancy payments on a monthly basis by the total offsets received during the same month. 10.4 Billing Requirements DMH is planning to utilize the Virtual Gateway process for billing. However, DMH will provide a period for Contractors to transition to this process. At contract start, Contractors may use either the HIPAA Virtual Gateway process or the Enterprise Invoice Management (EIM) system. EIM is accessed through the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) Virtual Gateway. The following are VGBO links that may be helpful to Bidders: (to contact the VGBO) (Job Aids for EIM) Contractors are required to have in place mechanisms to gather and submit the following to DMH monthly: Payment Vouchers: All Contractors are required to Virtual Gateway process (or EIM at contract start) for billing DMH monthly for the services it provides to DMH. Contractors will need to follow the ACCS Billing Guidelines, which will be available prior to contract start.
Committee will make a recommendation for Contract award(s) to the applicable Awarding Authority. The Awarding Authorities for the Contracts are as follows: Western Mass Area Julie Schwager, Area Director Central Mass Area Susan Sciaraffa, Area Director North East Area Susan Wing, Area Director Boston Area Patricia Area Director Southeastern Mass Area Howard Baker-Smith, Area Director DMH reserves the right to change any or all of the Awarding Authorities. 13.4 Selection and Contract Negotiations Upon receipt of a Review Committee’s recommendation, the Awarding Authority will establish a prioritized list of the Bidders’ responses for Contract negotiations. The Awarding Authority shall prioritize the responses based on what he/she determines demonstrates the best overall value to DMH. The Awarding Authority is not bound by the evaluations given to the responses by the Review Committee; however, the Awarding Authority must review them and give them some consideration. The Awarding Authority will document within the procurement file his/her prioritized list of responses. Contract negotiations will then commence with the Bidder(s) rated highest by the Awarding Authority, if any. Negotiations will occur prior to the decision to formally award the Contract. Negotiations shall be limited to those matters specified in 801 CMR 21.07. The identification of a selected Bidder(s) does not create a contractual obligation on DMH or the Commonwealth until negotiations are successfully completed and a Contract is executed. For more information on Contract negotiations, see OSD RFR - Required Specifications, “Best Value Selection and Negotiations”. If DMH is unable to satisfactorily negotiate the terms of a Contract with an initially selected Bidder(s) in a reasonable period of time, DMH may disqualify that Bidder(s) and begin negotiations with the next appropriate Bidder on the Awarding Authority’s prioritized list. 13.5 Rejection of Responses A Review Committee and/or the Awarding Authority may disqualify any response that it deems unresponsive pursuant to 801 CMR 21.06 (10). A response may be rejected as being unresponsive if: It receives two or more ratings of poor in any evaluation Category as set forth in the Evaluation Tool Worksheet; or