The Impact of Proposed New York State Medicaid Reforms on HHC's Long-Term Care Facilities

The Capstone team was asked to analyze the potential impact of the New York State Medicaid reforms proposed by the Senate Medicaid Reform Task Force, the Governor’s Working Group on Medicaid Reform, and the Fiscal Year 2004 Executive Budget on the operations of the Health and Hospitals Corporation’s (HHC) four long-term care (LTC) facilities: Coler-Goldwater, Gouverneur, McKinney, and Seaview. After reviewing the proposals, the team identified three main themes of reform that directly affect long-term care. The reforms include changes to Medicaid eligibility, long-term care service delivery, and facility reimbursements through the Medicaid program. The largest impact of the proposed Medicaid reforms for HHC’s LTC facilities are the changes to facility reimbursements, especially the elimination of various supplemental payments and increase or establishment of multiple assessments on LTC facility reimbursements. The team evaluated the impact of the proposed reforms on HHC’s four LTC facilities and presented their analysis to HHC’s Strategic Planning Committee and senior management staff.