SNF Enrollment Revalidation Deadline Delayed
(Nov. 12, 2024) The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced last week that the deadline for responding to letters requesting revalidation of skilled nursing facility (SNF) Medicare enrollment has been extended until May 1, 2025. The original deadline for facilities in most states was 90 days from receipt of the letter. In addition to extending the deadline for submission, the most recent CMS sub-regulatory guidance, dated Nov. 5, 2024, includes Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and clarifies the number of organization charts that must be submitted along with the new CMS Form 855A.
As previously reported, by the end of the calendar year, all SNFs will receive a notice from their Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) requiring them to submit a new CMS Form 855A and SNF Attachment. The new SNF Attachment requires disclosure not only of information concerning the ownership and control of the SNF, but also various entities and individuals who provide the facility with real estate, clinical consulting, financial services, and other operational and administrative services (known as "Additional Disclosable Parties," or ADPs).
Among the FAQs posted on Nov. 5th are the following noteworthy items:
Q: We are a general partnership that is an additional disclosable party (ADP) for a SNF. We have 150 partners within our partnership. Must they all be reported?
A: Yes. Consistent with section 1124(c) of the Social Security Act (the Act), if an ADP is a general partnership all partners must be disclosed (regardless of the percentage of ownership). Moreover, separate Attachment 1s must be completed for each partner. We recognize that this is a lot of data, but we note that this situation is not altogether different from that which currently exists under section 1124(a) of the Act when an enrolling corporate provider must report all the members of its board of directors. For larger providers, this could number (and at times has numbered) in the hundreds.
Q: Our firm provides accounting services to the SNF. However, we do not have any ownership of or control over the SNF. Must we still be reported as an ADP?
A: Yes. So long as the party falls within one of the categories of ADPs, they must be reported. The firm need not have --- and section 1124(c) does not require ---an ownership or control interest in the SNF to qualify for disclosure under the accounting services category.
Q: Our SNF is reporting, among others, the following parties: (1) Corporation X, which is one of our indirect owners but is not an ADP; and (2) Corporation Y, which is one of our ADPs. We know that because Corporation Y is an ADP, we must disclose its officers and directors. Must we do the same for Corporation X, an indirect owner but not an ADP?
A: No. The only officers and directors that must be listed are those for:
(a) The SNF itself (if the SNF is a corporation)
(b) The SNF’s ADPs that are corporations
(c) Officers and directors that qualify for disclosure in another capacity (e.g., an officer of Corporation X provides financial services to the SNF, or is one of the SNF’s managing employees)
Merely because an indirect owner of the SNF is a corporation does not automatically mean its officers and directors must be reported. One of (a), (b), and (c) above must apply to mandate disclosure. Put otherwise, while corporate ADPs must disclose their officers and directors, the same is not necessarily true for the SNF’s indirect corporate owners. Please see the public sub-regulatory guidance above for more information.
Members should continuously monitor the link to the sub-regulatory guidance and the CMS provider enrollment website for updates. LeadingAge NY will continue to notify members of updates via Intelligence.
More information is available here and here.
Contact: Karen Lipson, klipson@leadingageny.org