Situation Report | June 28, 2021
Last week, HCA met with the state Department of Health (DOH) and other provider associations to review the 2019 Home Care Cost Report process and the upcoming 2020 Home Care Cost Report.
DOH reported that it expects to release the 2020 Home Care Cost Report over the summer but has no approximate date at this time.
DOH provided the following updates to the cost report:
- An edit check feature will be added for Schedule 3 Column 004 (Program Administration) and Schedule 4 Column 004 (Program Administration) that will prevent submission of the cost report if these values are not the same.
- The cells on Schedule 4 that appeared red but still allowed data entry will now appear as gray and will not allow data entry.
- A new report has been created that will allow providers to download their full cost report in Excel format.
- Updates to the General Questionnaire will be made to capture activities that occurred during the 2020 calendar year (e.g., the addition of a question about federal funding received as a result of COVID-19).
In other updates:
- The audit process for the 2020 Home Care Cost Report will be “real” and not for information and learning experiences, as it was for the 2019 report.
- Personal protective equipment (PPE) costs incurred by agencies will be recognized in the cost report.
- Any reporting of federal relief funds won’t affect an agency’s 2021 rates.
- About 630 agencies representing 6,000 entities submitted cost reports.
- DOH will hold webinars for providers when the 2020 Home Care Cost Report is released.
- Log-in information for the 2020 Home Care Cost Report will be the same as for 2019, but agencies will need a new log-in to upload documents.
HCA emphasized the need for training on the 2020 report and adequate time to complete it. In addition, we asked for data on: the number and types of agencies who did not address KPMG’s concerns about their cost report and/or audit findings; percentage of submitters who were audited; and when the 2019 Home Care Cost Report data will be available via a Freedom of Information Act request.