Rhode Island health officials say they might deny Medicaid payments to some of the state’s nursing homes unless they cut a check to the government first.
That’s the latest in an ongoing dispute between local providers and state officials. Starting in May, Rhode Island will begin docking pay to dozens of nursing homes that received double payments as the state grappled with computer issues. Officials peg the total overpayments to nursing homes at about $84.3 million.
Nursing homes have already paid at least $20 million back to the state and will continue to do so, said Scott Fraser, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Health Care Association. However, he believes it’s crucial to fix any payment system glitches promptly before further straining provider finances.
“Our concern is that the state of Rhode Island is not able to reconcile and fix the system which has led us all to this point,” Fraser said in a statement. “Without correcting these problems, nursing homes in the state will continue to face serious cash flow issues in the future.”
He added that several of the association’s 66 member homes have seen their accounts receivable double in the past few years. Another saw those totals triple since September 2016, when Rhode Island launched its new computer initiative, the Unified Health and Infrastructure Project, or UHIP.
Altogether, Rhode Island has issued about $132 million in contingency payments to help smooth over cash flow issues while Medicaid payments were processed by the “balky” system. The state is still chasing down repayment from about 95 healthcare facilities, the Executive Office of Health & Human Services told the Providence Journal. EOHHS needs to collect at least $100 million of $112 outstanding payments by June 2020 to ensure the financial health of the state’s Medicaid program.
