The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services today announced that the newly appointed board for Cardinal Innovations will meet to hold its first official board meeting this weekend. The new board will convene on Friday evening, Jan. 26, for another training session and will come into session for its first official board meeting on Saturday, Jan. 27. At this board meeting, DHHS intends to transition leadership and governance of the organization to the new board and the Cardinal Innovations executive leadership team.
Press Releases
Governor Roy Cooper today announced the next wave of funding to combat the opioid crisis from the 21st Century Cures Act/State Targeted Response to the Opioid Crisis Grant that North Carolina received in May 2017. Since May, 3,200 individuals have benefited from these programs, and the funds announced today are expected to treat an additional 3,300 North Carolinians with an opioid use disorder.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is reporting the state's first child death from flu for the 2017-18 flu season. A child in the central part of the state died last week from complications associated with influenza infection. To protect the family's privacy, the child's hometown, county and gender are not being released.
Governor Roy Cooper issued a proclamation recognizing Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day in North Carolina and the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services' Division of Public Health joins in this observance. World AIDS Day renews opportunities for health service agencies to collaborate with partners, raise awareness about HIV and move closer to an AIDS-free generation.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is accepting applications for the state's Low-Income Energy Assistance Program beginning Friday.
Since arriving on site on Nov. 27, DHHS staff discovered documents that raise serious concerns about proposed financial activities by former board leadership and former CEO. Based on this information, DHHS filed and was granted a temporary restraining order in Mecklenburg County to ensure that former board members and the former CEO have no access to Cardinal's funds. DHHS has taken a variety of administrative actions related to the financial management of the organization; in addition to those activities we are pursuing this litigation out of an abundance of caution in the protection of taxpayer dollars.
Effective immediately, the N.C Department of Health and Human Services has temporarily assumed leadership of Cardinal Innovations, an LME-MCO authorized under state law to provide essential behavioral services using public funds.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is notifying the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights and affected individuals of a recent incident in which a spreadsheet containing personal information was sent in error to a vendor in an unencrypted email.
DHHS has released two documents related to our investigation of Cardinal Innovations. First, as required by state law, DHHS Office of Internal Audit has conducted a six-month Follow-Up Assessment based on the Office of State Audit report that was released in May 2017. Second, DHHS Office of Internal Audit has provided an additional interim report to DHHS leadership associated with a site visit it conducted at Cardinal Innovations on October 30.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services today submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services an amendment to the 1115 Demonstration Waiver application originally submitted by North Carolina in 2016. Submitting this amended waiver application is an important next step in implementing the Proposed Program Design for Medicaid Managed Care that DHHS published in August.