A Brave New Year!
January 04, 2021
This year, at least initially, is going to look a lot like the last one! So let’s jump in:
- It appears that the FFCRA leave options (which ended as a mandate on 31 December, 2020 – see Post from 11 December) will continue through 31 March, 2021 on a voluntary basis. Good new for those who value the tax credit which eliminates the cost of leave. Some basic information is available here.
- The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is coming back as part of the latest Relief Bill finally passed by Congress and signed on December 27th; banks will handle the processing as they did before (hopefully a bit more smoothly); there will be new PPP loans for first-time borrowers and certain existing PPP borrowers will be allowed to receive a second “draw” if they have used all of their first loan, have no more than 300 employees and can demonstrate a year-over-year quarterly revenue reduction of at least 25%.
- Another note on PPP – there is legislation introduced in the coming Session of the General Assembly that would provide an income tax exclusion for PPP loans which have been forgiven.
- It seems as if the Tranche 3 funds (See Post of 17 December) are literally trickling out and many/most who applied have not received any word yet!
- We expect the Memo describing the extension of the Appendix K flexibilities soon – it will include the increased options for Group Day that were part of the Special Session budget. Thanks, again, to the providers who helped us pull together the rationale and the examples used in describing the options!
- The Waiver Regulations are still at the Governor’s Office – when released the review period will only be 30 days!
- We are waiting for data from DMAS on the response to the Day Support and Residential provider payments which were the result of last minute action by the General Assembly and used CARES Act funds which were to expire on December 31st. At last report, the uptake for that program was smaller than hoped for. While the effort was, of course, greatly appreciated, the mechanics of application, requirements added mid-stream, and the challenge of coordinating accounting for expenses among State and Federal programs to avoid duplication made the entire process very challenging!
We’ll talk about Vaccination Options and the coming General Assembly Session on the Member’s Call on Friday, 8 January!