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US Chamber National Summit on Equality of Opportunity
Next Thursday, June 25, our partner organization the US Chamber of Commerce will hold a national summit
where leaders from across the private and public sectors will discuss solutions to some of the underlying challenges driving inequality of opportunity for Black Americans in four critical areas: education, employment, entrepreneurship, and the criminal justice system. The electronic summit is free and open to the public - you can register here.
Federal CMS COVID Funding
The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services issued a provider notice last Friday highlighting a new federal
provider portal that will allow Medicaid and CHIP providers that did not receive federal CARES Act funding from the Provider Relief Fund General Allocation to submit a request. The deadline for submissions is July 20, 2020.
The provider notice also highlights additional federal funds going to safety net hospitals in Illinois - to the approximate tune of $484 million. HHS Region V has told us that nearly all of the funds from the second round of funding from the general distribution of the Healthcare Provider Relief Fund have gone out - the remaining balance stems mostly from providers that still need to provide support documentation.
State Budget Office Releases Anticipated COVID Federal Funding Uses
The Governor's Office of Management and Budget released a document this week detailing the use of the more than $5 billion in federal funds earmarked for Illinois from the four different federal relief packages through May 31. Funds are broken down by agency.
DOI Working Groups
The final meeting of the pharmaceutical universal prior authorization form working group is this afternoon at 2 pm. The agenda is here (with call-in information). Additional background documents can be found on the meeting posting at
http://insurance.illinois.gov/.
DOI announced additional dates for the mental health parity reporting working group as required by Public Act 100-1024. Click here to see the schedule - the next meeting is June 26.
JCAR Update
DPH adopted an emergency amendment to Skilled Nursing and Intermediate Care Facilities Code (77 IAC 390; 44 Ill Reg 10217) effective 5/28/20 for a maximum of 150 days. The emergency rule requires long term care facilities to add testing for infectious diseases to their infection control policies and procedures, and to test all residents and staff when an outbreak occurs in the facility or when the risk of disease transmission is high and DPH directs them to conduct this testing. Facilities also must comply with infection control recommendations provided by DPH or their local health department. Long term care facilities are affected by this emergency rule.
HFS also proposed amendments to Hospital Services (89 IAC 148; 44 Ill Reg 10065) addressing reimbursement to hospitals for treatment of patients who no longer require acute care, but require nursing facility care for which they cannot immediately obtain appropriate placement. For dates of service on or after 7/1/19, payment for hospital long term care days will be made for those days beyond the period of time when hospital care is needed (if the hospital is reimbursed on a per diem basis) or beyond the average length of stay for the specified diagnosis (if the hospital is reimbursed under the Diagnosis Related Grouping system). Prior approval is also required. The reimbursement rate for eligible hospital long term care days is $289.48/day. Other provisions allow Medicaid Percentage Adjustment hospitals to cease providing obstetric services if there is another hospital within 15 miles that provides obstetric services, and terminate patient copayments for inpatient and non-emergency services effective 8/31/19.
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