Providers got their wish in mid-August when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it was rescinding a controversial proposal that would have cut up to $50 billion annually nationwide from the Medicaid program.
The Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Rule (MFAR) was unveiled in November 2019 and immediately faced a broad wall of opponents, including long-term care, hospitals, governors and many others, who feared unintended consequences.
The rule would have established new requirements for states to report provider-level information on Medicaid supplemental payments. It also would have revised Upper Payment Limit (UPL) demonstrations and supplemental payments, and set new requirements for how UPLs can be calculated and which data sources to use.
Continuing care retirement communities and a handful of states, including Florida, Texas and Indiana, would have been hit especially hard by negative repercussions on bed taxes and other funding mechanisms.
The American Health Care Association teamed up with the American Hospital Association to write a rare joint letter condemning the proposed rule in January.
LeadingAge also wrote CMS the next month, expressing extreme displeasure with the proposal.
From the October 2020 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
