Trustees Distribute Universal Settlement Update

Earlier this week nursing homes received a memo on Universal Settlement issues along with final home-specific distribution amounts and updated home-specific Medicaid liability amounts. Approximately 98 percent of all homes executed the settlement, although a number of releases contained changes unauthorized by the Department of Health (DOH). Those homes must re-execute the form and will receive a targeted follow-up message in the next several days. Once this process is complete the state will determine whether there is universal participation. A copy of the memo is available here.

Also included in the send was an election form for homes that are eligible and interested in applying for the Special Appeals Fund which must be completed and returned within 45 days. To be eligible for this fund, homes must receive minimum payment funding in their Universal Settlement distribution. Eligible homes will see a "minimum payment funding note" at the bottom of Appendix A. A copy of the election form may be downloaded here and the outline of the special appeals process that was distributed in Nov. 2014 is available here.

The distribution amount on the updated Appendix A shows the total payment due to all current and former owners of the home. It also breaks out any litigation payments by individual lawsuit. In no case should the total distribution amount shown be lower than in the previous send; for homes eligible for minimum payment funding the amounts should be slightly higher. Similarly, the home-specific Medicaid liability amounts were updated to reflect payments or recoupments made since June 2014 and in no case should be higher than what the home would have seen in the US materials distributed in November. If your home did not receive these final home-specific figures please let us know.

DOH continues to expect to make at least one Universal Settlement payment in this state fiscal year.  

Contact:  Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841