Notice of Extension. The New York State Department of Health (DOH) has extended the deadline from November 30 to close of business on December 15, 2017 for currently operating Fiscal Intermediaries under the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) to submit their Applications for Fiscal Intermediary Authorization.

Currently operating Fiscal Intermediaries must now submit the Authorization Application by December 15 or cease operations immediately. Those who are not yet a Fiscal Intermediary but wish to become one should also submit their Authorization Application by December 15 in order to be among those first to be reviewed.

FAQs Issued. Also today, the DOH issued FAQs addressing the Authorization Application. These FAQs can be found at:

https://hca-nys.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Consumer-Directed-FI-Authorization-FAQs-11-28-17.pdf

The FAQs answer questions raised after the Authorization Application was issued, as follows:

  1. You must obtain your FI Authorization from DOH before you request a Medicaid Provider Identification number, and the Medicaid number for your FI must be separate from any LHCSA Medicaid number.
  2. You can submit an Authorization Application that is not totally complete to comply with the December 15 deadline, as long as you exercised due diligence to submit an application that was as complete as possible. This implies that you will be able to supplement your application. However, the thoroughness of your application will set the timeline for its review.
  3. As requested in the October 2017 Medicaid Update, (although not specifically requested in the Authorization Application), you are required to submit your marketing and outreach materials in pdf format, and any videos and audio segments in their original format, if they cannot be altered to pdf.
  4. DOH will use the CDPAP statute's and regulations' parameters in reviewing your marketing and outreach materials to determine whether they comply with the roles and responsibilities assigned to FIs and consumers.
  5. If you fail to submit your Authorization Application by December 15, your FI is deemed out of compliance with the CDPAP statute, is not authorized to operate as an FI, and is subject to contract termination protocols of your MCOs. However, the additional sentence, "Until the Department receives the Authorization application, the FI will remain out of compliance," raises the question of whether a late filing can be cured and what the ramifications of a late filing will be to an FI.
  6. All Board members must sign the written resolution authorizing the application's submission.
  7. Submit the Survey or other mechanism you intend to use to obtain input from consumers and other interested parties; if not available, indicate what you intend to develop to meet this requirement.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.