Health Home Serving Children (HHSC) Day Habilitation Transition & Community Habilitation Referrals Announcement

• Announcement also available in Portable Document Format (PDF)

To: Health Home Serving Children (HHSC)

Subject: Day Habilitation Transition & Community Habilitation Referrals

Dear Health Homes Serving Children,

The New York State Department of Health (the Department) recently announced the

discontinuance of Day Habilitation as a service under the 1915c Children's Waiver Amendment. All currently designated Day Habilitation providers will be de-designated from this service effective March 1, 2026. Current Day Habilitation participants can transfer to Community Habilitation, if appropriate and needed.

Care Managers must reach out to participants and their families currently connected to a Day Habilitation provider in the Incident Reporting and Management System (IRAMS) to discuss this update and determine the need for a new service referral. Care managers are required to provide the attached Day Habilitation Transition FAQ to the participants/families to help facilitate these conversations.

For participant, who are receiving Day Habilitation service from an HCBS provider, the care manager is required to provide the attached letter outlining these changes and notifying the participant/family of their Fair Hearing rights and the FAQ, no later than December 31, 2025.

To assist with this upcoming Transition, the Department will be sharing a list of HCBS participants who currently are receiving Day Habilitation as outlined in claims and those who have a connection to a Day Habilitation provider in IRAMS, however this must be verified by the assigned care manager or Health Home. For those participants referred to Day Habilitation and not receiving the service, this referral must be closed in IRAMS, no later than January 16, 2026and a referral for Community Habilitation, if needed or another service can be made once the discussion occurs with the participant and family.

The Department is aware that some of the HCBS providers are currently on a referral hold and unable to accept new referrals. As part of this transition, agencies who are currently rendering Day Habilitation to a participant who, because of the Waiver Amendment needs to transfer to Community Habilitation, if appropriate, are eligible to accept a Community Habilitation referral for these youth. The Department is currently working with the IRAMS development team to configure the system to allow for these referrals and will be following up with applicable Health Homes once this configuration is complete. Please be aware that this flexibility applies only to Community Habilitation, and only to participants to whom the agency is currently rendering Day Habilitation.

Any questions on this message can be directed to BH.Transition@health.ny.gov.

Sincerely,

NYS Children's Waiver Team