12/11/2020

Today's COVID-19 Report: Friday, December 11, 2020

Friday, December 11, 2020

Here are the latest need-to-know updates for Friday, December 11 regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Today's Report

• COVID-19 vaccination overview update
• Join the Advocacy in Action call for latest on federal relief, lame duck
• Update on FY 2017 and 2018 Medicaid overpayment reports
• ODM finds high error rates, shares plans to suspend Exception Reviews
• LeadingAge Need to Know

COVID-19 vaccination overview update

LeadingAge Ohio attended the first meeting of the DeWine Administration’s Priority Populations Workgroup to address vaccine distribution. Attached is the presentation from the meeting.

As a reminder, facilities that have not received a communication from the Pharmacy Partnership’s pharmacy to which they have been assigned (CVS, Walgreens, PharmScript or Absolute) should email Haylee Dunahay, Director of Coalitions at Office of Ohio Governor Mike Dewine, immediately at Haylee.Dunahay@Governor.ohio.gov.

Join the Advocacy in Action call for latest on federal relief, lame duck

This month's call will include the latest on a bipartisan relief package from Washington D.C., the hospice care improvement act, the Ohio essential caregiver bill, and other bills likely to move during the lame duck sessions.

To join Zoom call from your computer:  

https://easyconnecthd.zoom.us/j/9150897248?pwd=UmtubGgzY2hyRk1BaXJEV0EzdWhZZz09

Meeting ID: 915-089-7248
Meeting Passcode: 634189

To join via phone, dial: (646) 558-8656; meeting ID: 915-089-7248.

One-touch dial:16465588656,9150897248#,,,,#

Update on FY 2017 and 2018 Medicaid overpayment reports

LeadingAge Ohio reported last month that it had been more than 30 days since the Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) had emailed its last overpayment reports to active providers for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. Long Term Care providers (ICFs/NFs) were required to advise ODM within 30 days as to whether they want to work with ODM to resolve findings on the overpayment reports or agree to the amount on the initial mailing.

In an update provided during LeadingAge Ohio’s call with ODM yesterday, ODM reported that over 1,400 overpayment reports had been mailed out, and as of yesterday 13% (184 facilities) had not responded. Non-respondants  are urged to respond immediately in order to mitigate ODM’s need to follow-up with a certified mailing. If LeadingAge Ohio members have not yet responded, they are urged to send in the applicable completed and signed forms to LTCAudits@medicaid.ohio.gov ASAP. ODM also confirmed that they have not yet notified providers that had no findings, but planned to do so in the coming days. Additionally, ODM agreed to share the lists of providers who had no overpayments, as well as those they’d yet not heard from, with LeadingAge Ohio. If a facility would like to confirm overpayment report status, please reach out to Susan Wallace at swallace@leadingageohio.org.

ODM finds high error rates, shares plans to suspend Exception Reviews

In a meeting with the Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) this week, LeadingAge Ohio learned that of the 20 MDS Exception Review surveys conducted by Myers & Stauffer this autumn, over half of them (55%; 11 of 20) found that the documentation failed to support the MDS coding. This rate is significantly higher than previous rates, but ODM shared that they are aware that other states may be experiencing similar trends as the current survey period includes the start of the pandemic, ending June 30, 2020. ODM agreed to investigate what portion of the findings indicated an absence of supporting documentation and what portion reflected documentation that contradicted the MDS data.

In recognition of the pressure that providers are currently facing, ODM has decided to suspend exception reviews after the week of December 14, and does not plan to resume them until February at the very earliest. Questions related to MDS Exception Reviews may  be directed to Stephanie DeWees at sdewees@leadingageohio.org.

LeadingAge Need to Know: COVID-19 – December 11, 2020

LeadingAge shares the latest coronavirus news and resources with members twice each weekday. This morning's update featured an announcement on an upcoming training on the BD Veritor COVID-19 testing device, and news on the Pandemic Playbook.

Check out the full report here.

Questions

Please send all questions to COVID19@leadingageohio.org. Additionally, members are encouraged to visit the LeadingAge Ohio COVID-19 Working Group facebook group to pose questions to peers and share best practices. LeadingAge is continuing its daily calls for all members.  To participate in these daily online updates, members should register here.  

LeadingAge Ohio is working to ensure that the information in our daily alerts, on our website, and all coronavirus-related communications is as accurate as possible. However, LeadingAge Ohio makes no guarantees about the accuracy of the information.