Update: 5/2020 NYS Medicaid Program Application to CMS for $2.75B

August 20, 2020

Good afternoon,

We’ve had some questions about a brief reference in a recent Crain’s Health Pulse newsletter  to a NYS funding application that is still pending with CMS.  Please note:  We first advised our members about the application on May 12.  

As the Crain’s article stated, this application is still pending CMS, having been submitted by New York to CMS in mid-May 2020.  It’s worth reviewing (again) as you consider the ‘big picture’ thinking at the state agency and executive levels regarding the future of the healthcare delivery system.  Of course, it is unclear what the long term impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had on New York’s plans as expressed in this funding application.  

More as we know it.

Lauri 

———- Forwarded message ———

From: Lauri Cole <lauri@nyscouncil.org>

Date: Tue, May 12, 2020 at 8:16 PM

Subject: Today’s NYS Medicaid Program Application to CMS for $2.75B

To: NYS Council members 

Good evening,Earlier today we sent you information regarding New York’s $2.75B request to CMS (filed today) for federal funds to: 1)  help New York respond to the COVID-19 pandemic 2)  repurpose the infrastructure built under the state’s DSRIP program3)  support rapid pivoting and reconfiguring of aspects of the State’s health care delivery system. 

New York’s application includes the following elements:

1) Preserving the Safety Net: Emergency Capacity Assurance ($1.2B):  This is funding to support essential community providers and institutions that are facing sustainability challenges resulting from the current crisis

2) Rapid Facility Conversion ($650M): This is funding for investments to support rapid facility conversion at a local level to meet demand in the public health emergency

3) Regional Coordination and Workforce Deployment ($900M): This is funding for the state’s Performing Provider Systems (PPSs) to support regional coordination, deploy telehealth infrastructure, and expand adoption of promising practices related to the COVID-19 response.  The funding would also support workforce redeployment efforts to enhance local capacity in a public health emergency.  

The application also makes reference to a future concept paper with the goal of designing the ‘delivery system of the future’ aligned with value-based payment goalsand the lessons of COVID-19.  

If CMS approves New York’s request, the state would move rapidly to make funding available.  It would develop an application process for the Preserving the Safety Net: Emergency Capacity Assistance funding that includes published eligibility requirements. Applicants will need to rapidly turn around their submissions (10-day period).  Rapid Facility Conversion would take a similar path.  

About the Regional Coordination and Workforce Redeployment Funding:  This funding ($900M) for PPSs would be made available through a fast-tracked application and approval process. All 25 PPSs across the state would be eligible to submit a regional coordination plan, and those with strong community-based organization partnerships as well as those with ‘inclusive’ provider networks would be given ‘special consideration and weighted appropriately’ in award allocations.   Half (50%) of the funding would be available upon approval of a PPS’s coordination plan, and the remaining funds would be allocated based on performance. 

This is a brief discussion of today’s new funding application to CMS from the New York Medicaid Program.  CMS must still review and determine whether to approve the state’s request.  

The NYS Council sent you the Letter from State Medicaid Director Donna Frescatore as well as New York’s application earlier today via our email on this topic.  They are attached again for your convenience.