This transmittal announced that a new Fair Hearing Information System (FHIS) issue code have been developed for the Family Planning Benefit Program (FPBP) administered by the New York State Department of Health (DOH). The new FHIS Issue Code is: 218 Family Planning Benefit Program (FPBP).
The FPBP provides family planning and related services on a fee-for-services basis for women of childbearing age (including teens under 21 years of age), as well as men. Recipients of FPBP must meet certain income criteria, are not otherwise eligible for Medical Assistance (MA) or Family Health Plus (FHP) or have chosen not to apply for MA or FHP.
For Upstate, the local Department of Social Services (DSS) and in New York City, the Medical Assistance Program (MAP) of the New York City Human Resources Administration (HRA) are responsible for making a final determination of FPBP eligibility and sending appropriate notice to the client and to the Family Planning Provider that accepted the application.
Because of the highly confidential nature of the FPBP, the application process has a provision for allowing all mail related to the program to be sent to an alternate address other than the client's home. In most cases, this alternate address would be a Family Planning Provider. It is, therefore, equally important that requests for hearing related to this issue be handled with the same level of confidentiality.
The Communication Intake Unit (CIU) staff of the Office of Administrative Hearings must, in all instances, determine from the appellant if s/he wishes to have all correspondence related to the hearing request forwarded to an alternate address. If so, the alternate address, not the home address, must be the address of record on the fair hearing request.
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