Attention Providers of MaineCare Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS): Payment Details for Part II of Recruitment and Retention Payments

Feb 15, 2022

As communicated in this February 9th e-message and DHHS press release, the Department issued the first of two HCBS Recruitment and Retention payments to registered providers of Sections 2, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26, 28, 29, 40, 65, 92, 93, 96, 97B, 97D, 97E, and 97F services on February 9, 2022.   

The Department will issue the second of the two recruitment and retention payments to these same providers with this week’s claims payment cycle on February 16, 2022. The second payment will equal the second half (50 percent) of the total that participating agencies receive.   

Providers will receive this payment as part of the provider’s weekly payment cycle; we will indicate the payment as an “OTHER” payment on the Summary page of the remittance advice (RA). If the Department is not reimbursing a provider for any claims this week, the provider will still receive the recruitment and retention payment, but without an RA. For providers receiving an electronic 835 remittance, the invoice number will have the special prefix “BON” for “bonus payment.” 

Participating agencies registered for the initiative in December. The Department has sent a separate e-mail to the point of contact the provider listed during registration with instructions on how to log into a portal (different from the MIHMS HealthPAS portal) to view the total payment amount due to the provider. The e-mail came from bonuspayments.HCBS@maine.gov. If you did not receive this e-mail, please reach out to bonuspayments.HCBS@maine.gov. 

Previously, we instructed providers to make bonus payments to eligible workers by March 31, 2022. We have extended that deadline to June 30, 2022. The Department will now recognize bonus payments made to eligible existing and new workers between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022 under this initiative. We are also extending the reporting deadline to August 1, 2022. 

Please note that all other guidance remains as written in the previous communications. We have updated the FAQ to reflect the deadline changes. 

Thank you for your commitment to Maine’s frontline workers and the people they support.    

Please contact Provider Relations Specialist Tammy Usher with questions.