Councilmember Joseph questions Summer Rising budget and provider payments

Councilmember Joseph, followed by Councilmember Ressler.

Thank you, Chairs, and I hope young people are also at the table when you're making these decisions and their voices are centered.

Thank you so much.

You know what my favorite topic is?

What is the total budget for Summer Rising program?

And can you provide the status update on number of providers for the summarizing program remaining outstanding or not receiving payments for FY25 service?

You know the city love to owe people.

How we doing on that?

Well, hello.

Hello.

Hi.

Hi.

So summarizing, our budget for FR27 is $151 million.

We're grateful that the most recent administration did it based on restoration and the JAN plan.

And so we know for this upcoming

Being summer, the funding is stored and will have continuity of services.

What was your other question?

We're hearing from providers that haven't been paid from FY25.

All of our FY26 amendments, inclusive of summarizing, are pretty much registered.

I'll just get the exact number.

But for the most part, for FY27,

98% of our amendments associated with all types of increases to funding have been moved.

And this is FY25.

They wanted to know why is there delays and providers have been informed of why there's a delay.

Do you inform the providers when there's a delay in payments?

What do you say to them?

For payments, usually we inform them that there's a delay, but currently there has not been any substantial delay in payments.

I think what they're referencing is some may be saying they have not received their funding, additional funding.

If that's the case, I ask that they reach out to our help desk and we can look into it.

But to my knowledge, all implementations for prior summers, for summer rising, weren't included in a release to providers.

We can always talk offline and let you know who the provider is.

What strategies are being implemented for pay providers faster in the FY26?

What is the timeline to get funding out the door right away for providers?

Well, currently, most of our providers, when we get contracts registered, we do a 50% advance to help with cash flow.

After that, we essentially do reimbursements based on provider invoice submission.

Now, in full transparency, we have not had as much invoice submissions, and so that may be impacting the provider.

Carter's ability to maintain cash flow.

But currently we have less than 1% of invoices under 30 days.

I mean, over 30 days.

So we know that there's a pretty much fast turnaround for invoice submissions.

But again, if someone is having specific issues, I encourage you, please reach out and we'll look into it.

But right now, about 1% of our invoices are over 30 days.

And I think when I came in and looked, it was about three.

And they're at 40, and I said work on them.

So I know that they're already working on them right now.

And so we're prioritizing.

Wonderful to hear.

And if a provider is having trouble accessing the system, do you provide technical support for that provider?

Yes, we have a help desk, and a lot of our staff are doing phone calls all the time.

And we work closely with MOX.

Our payment team and budget team have weekly calls with MOX to troubleshoot any issues they're having technically.

And if providers are having issues, we always raise those concerns to them during those meetings.

And again, we kind of provide our system.

We have a help desk to respond to any increase.