History
A Brief History of the North Carolina Providers Council
The North Carolina Community Support Providers Council [doing business as The North Carolina Providers Council] was incorporated as a 501(C)(6) in 1997 in an effort to coordinate providers of mental health, intellectual/developmental disability, and substance use disorder services (MH/IDD/SUD). The Council initially started as a volunteer organization, but in 2004 hired Bob Hedrick, M.A. Ed. as its first full-time Executive Director and lobbyist. Bob served as Executive Director for 15 years. The Council was North Carolina’s first association to establish an ethical standard for MH/IDD/SUD providers. That standard promoted putting all other issues aside to focus on working together on behalf of the people supported and ensuring the quality of and access to community-based services. The Council’s Code of Ethics became the template used in the creation of LME/MCO Provider Network Councils’ ethical standards.
The Providers Council established key platforms critical to the assurance of quality services, and they remain guiding principles for North Carolina’s providers of community services. Through a grant from the NC Council on Developmental Disabilities, The Providers Council supported competency-based training and specific mental health services training, and for several years sponsored training on Person-Centered Thinking. The Providers Council has always promoted excellent training and collaboration for providers. This is accomplished through regular legislative updates, monthly and bi-monthly standing committees, quarterly Membership / Leadership Forums, and annual Conferences.
As the Providers Council has promoted access to quality, community-based services throughout its history, it has focused on the efficacy of services provided. We recognize and believe that for services to be effective in meeting people’s needs, those services must be sufficient in amount, duration, and scope, and the rates paid to providers must also be sufficient to assure quality and continuity of care. By analyzing and discussing proposed legislative and regulatory changes, NCPC provider members and the contract lobbyists advocate strategically with General Assembly Members and DHHS officials. With the continuing, statewide healthcare system involvement of the NC Providers Council, these tenets of a quality, community-based service system will endure as Medicaid Transformation continues to evolve. People with the most severe medical and behavioral challenges and other MH/IDD/SUD and Child and Family Welfare service needs must have access to services that are adequately funded and that support them in living as independently as possible in their communities across North Carolina.
