Nursing home providers are seeking an extended comment period on a proposed federal rule that could hurt their supplemental payments. 

LeadingAge submitted a letter Wednesday to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services asking for an extension of the comment period for its proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation.

The deadline to submit comments on the proposal is Jan. 17, 2020. LeadingAge is asking that be extended by an additional 60 days, to March 17.

The rule would establish new requirements for states to report provider-level information on Medicaid supplemental payments. Specifically, the proposal seeks to revise Upper Payment Limit (UPL) demonstrations and supplemental payments, LeadingAge noted. 

It also includes new requirements for how UPLs can be calculated and which data sources to use, the organization explained. 

“LeadingAge members are very concerned about the potential effect the proposed rule could have for nursing facility services, including both Medicaid financing and beneficiary access. Many are working to calculate state- and provider-level impacts of the proposal and may require more time to do so than the comment period allows,” wrote Ruth Katz, LeadingAge’s senior vice president for policy. 

Katz added that state legislatures are scheduled to convene in 2020 and most won’t be in session to consider or quantify the “implications of these proposed changes on state Medicaid financing.”

“Extending the comment period will allow state policymakers and stakeholders more time to provide the agency with meaningful feedback, including data-driven analyses of the proposal,” she wrote.

CMS announced the proposed rule in mid-November in an effort to add transparency to Medicaid payment processes and eliminate suspect practices.

“For the most part, this affects state Medicaid agencies and imposes new reporting requirements, including payment amount by provider and the criteria and methodology used to calculate these payments,” LeadingAge wrote in a blog post.

CMS is also proposing to set new criteria for which revenue generated by provider taxes would or would not receive federal matching funds, the organization warned. State provider taxes would also face new scrutiny under the proposed legislation. 

The rule could also mean more scrutiny on ownership transfers between private organizations and government entities.