California announces short-term payment delays for Medi-Cal institutional providers February 6, 2012 News, Payment Medi-Cal, Medi-Cal institutional providers, reimbursement 1 The state of California announced that it will institute short-term payment delays to Medi-Cal institutional providers due to a severe cash flow shortage. Implementation of the delays is effective March 1, 2012 (the first check release date of March). Reimbursement to Medi-Cal institutional providers, except for clinics, designated public hospitals and local educational agencies, will be held per the schedule below: Payments scheduled for March 1 [electronic funds transfer (EFT) date of March 5] will be held until March 15 (EFT date of March 19), and will be paid along with all services normally scheduled for payment that week. Payments scheduled for March 8 (EFT date of March 12) will be held until March 22 (EFT date of March 26), and will be paid along with all services normally scheduled for payment that week. Payments to Medi-Cal non-institutional providers will not be held. Please note that the list below is limited to providers whose claims are processed by the ACS, the Medi-Cal fiscal intermediary. To ensure implementation of this proposal, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) will hold reimbursement to the following Medi-Cal institutional providers: Adult Day Health Care Centers Assistive Device and Sick Room Supply Dealers Blood Banks Clinical Laboratories Fabricating Optical Laboratory/Prison Industry Authority Home Health Agencies Community Hospital Outpatient Departments Community Hospital Inpatient (with the exception of designated public hospitals) Long-Term Care (LTC) facilities Pediatric Subacute Care – LTC Ground Medical Transportation Genetic Disease Testing Air Ambulance Transportation Services Certified Hospice Service per Assembly Bill 4249 Home and Community Based Services Nursing Facilities Mental Health Inpatient County Hospital Inpatient (with the exception of designated public hospitals) County Hospital Outpatient Multipurpose Senior Services Program Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly The following institutional providers are exempt from the temporary payment withhold: Indian Health Clinics Rural Health Clinics Federally Qualified Health Centers Free Clinics Community Clinics Chronic Dialysis Clinics Multi-Specialty Clinics Surgical Clinics Exempt from Licensure Clinics Rehabilitation Clinics County Clinics Not Associated with a Hospital Birthing Centers – Primary Care Clinics Clinic Otherwise Undesignated Alternate Birthing Centers – Specialty Clinics Expanded Access to Primary Care Clinics Designated Public Hospitals Local Education Agencies DHCS acknowledges that this difficult decision is painful for providers. SFMS/CMA is working with DHCS to mitigate the impact of this action on physicians. Comments are closed.
