Announcement

Health Home Serving Children Home Comprehensive Assessment Integration within the Uniform Assessment System (UAS)

February 28, 2025

TO: Health Homes Serving Children and Care Management Agencies

The New York State Department of Health (the Department) is excited to announce the 1.19 Uniform Assessment System (UAS) software upgrade occurring on Tuesday March 4, 2025. This release has several new features as outlined in the UAS release notes (attached) and includes the integration of the Health Home Comprehensive Assessment within the UAS.

Effective Mach 4, 2025, with the UAS software update, the UAS-based modules including the CANS- NY are to be used to meet the requirements of the Health Home Comprehensive Assessment Policy instead of a separate stand-alone Assessment. The Health Home Comprehensive Assessment Policy (Adult and Children) #HH0002 is being updated to reflect these changes.

Health Homes and Health Home care managers are still required to assess for risk factors that identify high risk behaviors that may jeopardize the individual’s overall health and wellbeing by providing additional screenings and/or referrals to appropriate clinical entities. The rating of the CANS-NY items should assist care managers in identifying risk items that need additional attention, screening, and referral. Please refer to the requirements within the Health Home Comprehensive Assessment Policy (Adult and Children) #HH0002, Appendix A for guidance:

"The care manager will assess for risk factors that will include but not limited to HIV/AIDS; harm to self or others; persistent use of substances impacting wellness; food and/or housing instabilities. The department has suggested standardized best practice screening tools across multiple domains to support care mangers in their role of early identification, referral and linkage to clinical interventions for high-risk individuals."

"Where information can be obtained, and transferred from other Health Home assessments or evaluations, this information can be used to populate the comprehensive assessment. For example, the required elements of the comprehensive assessment may be collected within different documentation gathered and stored in the electronic health record. The Health Home will provide direction to support CMAs in understanding the link of each document and how it fulfills the comprehensive assessment requirements."

The UAS release notes and associated training were available starting on Tuesday, February 18, 2025. All training will be officially Required on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. At that time, care manager assessors who have not completed these new trainings will not be allowed access to the UAS without first completing the training.

The Department would like to the thank the Health Home/Care Management Agency Advisory Workgroup that worked diligently to integrate the comprehensive assessment into the UAS. These efforts reduce redundancy for care managers and provide a centralized thorough assessment for children/youth/families being served, thereby enhancing overall program service.

Please direct questions to healthhomes@health.ny.gov.