Nursing Home Funding on the Way
(March 4, 2025) The Division of the Budget (DOB) has approved, and the Department of Health (DOH) has sent to the payment system, nursing home supplemental payments for state fiscal year 2024-2025. Members should see the lump sum payments (which should approximate 2 percent of their 2023 annual Medicaid revenue) in Medicaid payment cycle 2481 scheduled for release on March 26th. The associated Dear Administrator Letter (DAL) is available here. (Note that the DAL originally distributed contained a typo indicating that the funding would be in Medicaid cycle 2480).
This funding represents the reinvestment of revenue collected through the 0.8 percent portion of the 6.8 percent cash receipts assessment. In the aggregate, nursing homes remit about $70 million in 0.8 percent assessment payments and will receive a total of $140 million in supplemental payments. The payments represent approximately 2 percent of annual Medicaid revenue and include geriatric and specialty units as well as both fee-for-service and Medicaid managed care volume. As is the case with most lump sum payments, DOH will net out any outstanding Medicaid liabilities, and the impacted provider will receive the remainder by paper check.
Members should recall that the payments will also reconcile prior supplemental payments that were calculated using 2022 Medicaid days to reflect 2023 days. DOH has posted the backup calculations on the Department’s website. The key figures are here, while the calculation and reconciliation detail is available here. We suggest that members review the calculations and distributions and let us know if they find discrepancies.
Please note that these supplemental payments, which provide nursing homes with a net benefit of $70 million each year, are funded using a Medicaid provider tax. Current federal proposals would reduce or eliminate this important source of Medicaid funding. We urge members to reach out to their congressional representatives to advocate against Medicaid cuts using the Action Alert available here.
Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841