Last week, the Department of Medicaid (ODM) shared its plans for distributing $300 million in provider relief funds appropriated by HB169 to nursing homes. ODM plans to use $225 million of the funds and distribute to nursing facilities based on CY 2020 Medicaid days, holding back the remainder ($75 million) to be distributed based on the Quality Incentive Payment (QIP) methodology. The QIP methodology will distribute the $75 million pool on a per/day, per/point basis, at an estimated $.36 per/day, per/point rate.
LeadingAge Ohio successfully advocated for all providers to be able to participate in the QIP “pool” according to their quality score, and ODM agreed to not eliminate the providers below the 25th percentile in QIP scores, as is done in the Medicaid reimbursement formula.
HB169 also included requirements for how nursing facilities were able to spend the relief funds, requiring them to be spent on “direct care” and prohibiting spending on executive salaries, administrators, contractors or staffing agencies. ODM has yet to provide guidance on how this spending will be tracked. Questions related to HB169 may be directed to Susan Wallace at swallace@leadingageohio.org.