Dear Administrator: LTHHCP 2004 Software

June 01, 2005

Dear Administrator:

In accordance with Part 86-5 of the Commissioner's Administrative Rules and Regulations, all Long Term Home Health Care Programs (LTHHCP) shall complete and file annual financial and statistical report forms. The LTHHCP software will be available for downloading from the Health Provider Network (HPN) and all electronic submissions of the LTHHCP cost report MUST be made through HPN.

It is anticipated that the software for the 2004 LTHHCP cost report will be available on the Internet no later than June 1, 2005. Please be advised that the due date of the cost report will be July 31, 2005. NO EXTENSIONS BEYOND THIS DATE WILL BE GRANTED. The originally executed copies of both the operator's and accountant's certification must be United States Postal Service postmarked (meter postmarks are not acceptable) on or before July 31, 2005. If a program files this information after the required due dates, penalties will be assessed in accordance with Part 86-5.2(d) and Section 12-d of the Public Health Law.

In addition to the changes noted in last year's ( 2003 ) software regarding identification of non-allowable costs on Schedule A-5 and recruitment and retention expenses on Schedule C ( see my Dear Administrator letter of June 1, 2004 ), there are two additional changes to the software for the 2004 cost report.

  1. Schedule D-2 - Detail of Costs Unidentified to Specific Function, has been modified to allow agencies to further identify non-allowable expenses and therefore insure a more accurate calculation of the administrative and general expense limitation.
  2. A new Schedule H has been added to the software for the report. This new schedule has been included in the report to enable the Department to gather cost and utilization data on the waivered services not previously reported in the cost report and currently reimbursed through a different rate setting process. These services include Respite Care, Moving Assistance, Congregate or Home Delivered Meals, Social Day Care, Social Transportation, Housing Improvement and Home Maintenance. As noted in the revised general instructions for the 2004 cost report, the direct costs associated with these waivered services should continue to be EXCLUDED from all other schedules in the report. It is important that Schedule H be completed accurately ( in accordance with the applicable instructions) for all the waivered services provided by your agency, to enable the Department to obtain accurate information on the current provision of such services and for potential future rate development.

Please notify all appropriate personnel, including your accounting firms, of the filing requirements for the cost report and please begin compiling the cost report information as soon as possible in order to avoid any late filing penalties.

A cost report submission is not considered complete and timely filed until ALL required information is received by the Department. The following is a list of items that render a cost report submission incomplete, inaccurate, or incorrect:

  • The certification of the operator has not been received.
  • The certification of the operator has been found unacceptable.
  • The CPA certification has not been received.
  • The CPA certification has been found unacceptable.

Health Provider Network (HPN) Address

You may download the software from the department's Internet-Based Health Provider Network. This may be accessed at https://commerce.health.state.ny.us/hpn. Once you have reached this page, you will need to access the section entitled "Programs" and then click on the Program Area for the Division of Health Care Financing. Once you have reached our division's Home Page, you may access the LTHHCP Cost Report 2004 for download.

Please note that effective August 1, 2001, the accounts of all users who have not accessed the HPN within the past five months (i.e. since January 1, 2005) have been inactivated. This means that although the user's account is still valid, access to the HPN and its applications will not be available until the user's account is reactivated by NYSDOH staff. Users whose accounts have been inactivated will receive instructions for contacting the NYSDOH and reactivating their accounts after logging into the system. However, access to applications on the system will not be available until the reactivation is completed.

Enclosed with this letter are instructions on using the HPN and on installing the software onto your computer.

LTHHCP Cost Report Data Security

The Department has developed a data security system. Once your cost report passes all edits and is finalized, a Declaration Control Number (DCN) will appear on the computer screen and each page of report printouts. Any change in the cost report will cause the DCN to be erased and another DCN will not be generated until the report is finalized again. Please refer to the HELP section of the LTHHCP software for information on creating the Final Cost Report and the DCN Number.

Filing the Report

The Department will begin accepting the reports when you receive this letter. When the report has been successfully filed with the Department's computer, the facility will receive an electronic acknowledgment indicating the report is accepted and echoing back the DCN for the program's report. This will happen each time that the program files a report with a different DCN. Reports with the same DCN will be rejected after the first report is accepted.

A program may file as many reports as it deems necessary before the July 31, 2005 deadline. If multiple reports are filed, the Department will deem the last report filed for a program as the program's final report. If a program does not want its last report filed to be its final report, it must notify the Bureau, in writing, specifying its final report by its DCN.

Should you have any problems or questions regarding the electronic mail network please contact the HELP line at 1-800-638-3808.

If you have any questions regarding completion of the new Schedule H, please contact Ms. Marlene Stevens at (518) 473-8910. If you have any other questions concerning completion of the report, please contact Mr. Gary Crucetti at (518) 473-8910.

Sincerely,

Kathleen E. Gill
Chief Health Care Fiscal Analyst
Bureau of Long Term Care Reimbursement

Enclosures