Attention MaineCare Section 67, Nursing Facilities (NFs): Extraordinary Circumstance Allowance (ECA) Payments Have Been Released

Dec 21, 2023

As noted in today’s press release from the Department, this message is to inform you that the Department has issued supplemental payments to Nursing Facilities (NFs) that qualify for an Extraordinary Circumstances Allowance (ECA), as authorized by P.L. 2023, Ch. 412, Part NNNNN. These payments were dispersed on December 20, 2023.  

As described in our October 13, 2023 announcement, to be eligible for this ECA, providers had to:

• Apply for this payment,
• Submit a plan to improve efficiency of their facilities—either to control increasing costs or increase revenue by driving up occupancy, and
• Not be transitioning to a Residential Care Facility (RCF, or PNMI C).

Each qualifying facility was eligible for a specific payment amount informed by the difference between MaineCare reimbursement and actual direct care costs using 2022 cost report data, up to $2 million per facility. A total of $20 million was available for this payment and was pro-rated across providers. This payment is intended to be for prospective costs and will be cost settled. Due to the high costs related to labor costs at this time, the Department used direct care costs to inform the allocation methodology. For more information, please see the please read the October guidance.

Note that facilities should not assume that their efficiency plan submission serves as approval for all included planned spending activities. This payment must be applied to allowable costs incurred from October 1, 2023, through December 31, 2024. The priority use of the payment is for allowable direct care costs. For energy efficiency projects (including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and lighting), facilities should first seek funding through Efficiency Maine Long-Term Care Retrofits program: https://www.efficiencymaine.com/at-work/long-term-care-retrofits/.

For NFs receiving these funds, the invoice type should display on any paper Remittance Advice (RA) listed as “OTHER.” For NFs with electronic invoices the number should display with a prefix of “LTC” for these payments.

Please contact your Provider Relations Specialist, Bruce Cosgrove, with questions.