Last year, the Commissioner of the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD) announced that New York State's service system would begin to utilize an obscure federal funding model referred to as an "Organized Health Care Delivery System," essentially allowing OMRDD to treat voluntary serive providers as subcontractors, rather than Medicaid providers.  This, according to OMRDD, will allow far greater flexibility, choice, individualized services and greater funding to meet unmet needs.

OMRDD has dubbed the new approach "NYS-OPTS" (Options for Persons Through Services) and believes it will utterly transform New York State's service system.  Pilot projects are schedule to begin shortly to test NYS-OPTS.  With many questions and high hopes, New Yorker's in the field of intellectual and other developmental disabilities appear eager to embark on this new approach to service delivery.