COVID-19 Day Support and Residential Payment, Again!

December 08, 2020

We appreciate that, as we said on Friday, DMAS is building this airplane while it is in the air, and the rest of state government (both Legislative and Executive branches) are contributing to drawing the plans for the plane being built; however, the messaging has been less than helpful!  A couple of things to keep in mind:

• While the FAQs for the Day Support funding are dated 3 December and include a reference to the cost summary due December 30th, the majority of the document (including the example) was written prior to the decisions that payment would be based on costs directly associated with COVID and not reimbursed by other federal support and that lost revenue would not be an allowable expense.  Consequently, some of the information in the FAQs may be a bit misleading!
• For both Day Support and Residential payments you still must complete the RedCap application, however, the significance of the data input in RedCap is less than that included on the “Invoicing Form.” 
• The accounting for expenses, not including lost revenue, for the months of August – December (Day Support) or March – October (Residential) which comply with the restrictions outlined, can not be duplicated when you account for expenses beginning in January for the funds received directly from HHS for Medicaid or Medicare Providers, or other federal relief for COVID.  Other expenses, including in at least some cases lost revenue, can be attributed to the Federal relief received directly.
• While we expect, and are beginning to share with members of the General Assembly, that a great deal of the COVID-19 Day Support Payment will not be claimed, it will certainly help to offset the costs associated with the maintenance of space,  vehicles, phone systems, and the like in buildings now sitting vacant.

If you are in doubt, take the first steps – apply for the required API number and complete the RedCap survey for Day Support, Residential or both, as appropriate.  It does not commit you to anything and, if you chose to not proceed with the submission of the Invoicing Form, you have invested only a few minutes of your time.  If you do not summit the application (via RedCap) you will not later be eligible to request payment.

An announcement about two WebEx sessions to provide updates and answer questions will be out from DMAS this afternoon.