What's happening
Writing a plain-English summary… Track this bill to get it by email.
Why it matters
Albany, before your first meeting.
Every bill that moved yesterday, summarized in a sentence and ranked by impact. The Albany Scorecard follows on Sundays.
Free. Unsubscribe in one click. Want alerts on specific bills? Create an account.
Who cares
Headline styles
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Print number 2813a
- Amend (t) and recommit to health
- Referred to health
- Referred to health
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Exempts monthly assessments due from certain residential health facilities from interest or penalties for any period prior to October 1, 2017
In Assembly Committee · Health · Sponsor Annette Robinson
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act in relation to exempting monthly assessments due from residential health facilities located in any area designated as a Health Professional Shortage Area or serving a medically underserved population and experiencing a medical assistance utilization rate of eighty-five percent or greater from interest or penalties for any period prior to October 1, 2017
Purpose or general idea of bill
This bill would provide an opportunity for residential health facilities which are otherwise unable to satisfy their obligations to New York State to fulfill their responsibility.
Summary of specific provisions
This bill would allow a residential health facility which is located in a federally designated Health Professional Shortage Area or a medically underserved population area and which is paid by Medicaid or Medicare for more than 85% of its patients, to negotiate an agreement with the Commissioner of Health to enter into reasonable payment schedule on allowed taxes and fees, including all accumulated interest and penalties.
Read the full memo (632 words)
Justification
The Health Facilities Cash Receipts Assessment requires hospitals and nursing homes to pay an assessment on gross receipts on a monthly basis. This assessment was enacted in 2002 in order to close gaps in the State spending plan.
Under this tax, nursing homes and hospitals pay 6% of their gross revenue to the State, including revenue from Medicaid and Medicare patients. Those facilities then apply to the federal government to be compensated for the tax, a process which takes months. Health facilities which have a high proportion of Medicaid and Medicare patients have found it especially difficult to balance their books because of the delay inherent in this system.
This difficulty has been exacerbated by a state policy which is designed to encourage prompt payment of the tax by assessing a 25% penalty on overdue payments. There is no exception made for the delay caused by the reimbursement from the federal health care programs. As a result there are nursing homes and hospitals, particularly those with high Medicare and Medicaid caseloads, which owe as much in penalties and fees as they do under the original Cash Receipts Assessment.
Each month, as the penalties and fees compound, it becomes less feasible to make the payment to the State while providing health care services to the community. The recession has caused costs for medical supplies and the like to escalate, which consumes a greater share of the gross revenues which the Cash Receipts Assessment is based upon. The situation is untenable. If current trends continue, and there is no reason to expect that they will not, these facilities will be forced to enter receivership or bankruptcy within months, the State's prospects at collecting these, funds will dim, and the people of New York will suffer.
This bill gets at the heart of the problem by requiring these facilities to pay their tax bill in full, including all interest and other penalties, which brings needed revenue into the state, but it also allows the Department of Health to negotiate with these facilities to come up with a payment plan which prevents these facilities from having to shutter their doors. The bill is narrowly tailored to those facilities which a) receive more than 85% of their revenue from Medicaid and Medicare, b) are in a health professional shortage or medically underserved area, which means that their costs are likely substantially higher. These are the facilities that are, at this instant, on the precipice of disaster, unless this legislature steps in and addresses this problem.
Prior legislative history
A3626 of 2014 A318 of 2012 A9232 of 2010
Fiscal implications
This bill, if enacted will earn money for the State, which will collect the cash receipts tax from hospitals which cannot currently meet their obligation.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.