Agenda

Return

C.119

To:	Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Board of Directors
From:	Lewis T. Broschard III, Chief, Contra Costa Fire Protection District
Date:	May 7, 2019

Contra

Costa

County

Subject:

GEMT QAF Payment to Department of Health Care Services

APPROVE	OTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF CNTY ADMINISTRATOR	RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE

Action of Board On: 05/07/2019

APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED

OTHER

Clerks Notes:

VOTE OF SUPERVISORS

AYE:

John Gioia, District I Supervisor
Candace Andersen, District II Supervisor
Diane Burgis, District III Supervisor
Karen Mitchoff, District IV Supervisor
Federal D. Glover, District V Supervisor

Contact:

Jackie Lorrekovich, Chief Admin Svcs (925) 941-3300

I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date shown.
ATTESTED: May 7, 2019
David Twa,

BY:	, Deputy

RECOMMENDATION(S):

Acting as the Governing Board of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Auditor-Controller, on behalf of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, to make payments to the California Department of Health Care Services in the amounts of $499,200.78 and $478,158.96 for Quarters 1 and 2 respectively of 2018 for the Ground Emergency Medical Transport Quality Assurance Fee.

FISCAL IMPACT:

The Ground Emergency Medical Transportation (GEMT) / Quality Assurance Fee (QAF) program increases the historic base rate of Medi-Cal reimbursement by $220.80 per transport. The GEMT/QAF program, therefore, increases per transport reimbursement from the historic base rate of $118.20 to $339.00. To fund this program, the State is assessing transport providers a fee of $25.23 per transport effective July 1, 2018 (i.e., retroactively). The fiscal impact will be revenue positive for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District (District). The net revenue (increase in base rate less the fee) estimate for the District for 2018 is $2 million under the current funding and fee parameters.

BACKGROUND:

As reported in the District’s budget presentation on April 9, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved State Plan Amendment 18-004 authorizing the GEMT/QAF program in March 2019. The Quality Assurance Fee (QAF) is an add-on fee used to increase Medi-Cal funding. Essentially, emergency medical transportation providers must pay this fee (based on number of transports), and in return, providers will receive an anticipated uplift that increases the Medi-Cal reimbursement rate.

The QAF program was approved with a retroactive date of July 1, 2018.

On Friday, April 12, 2019, the District received notice that the first QAF payment would be due to the State no later than April 30, 2019. State program representatives indicated there would be no exceptions and a late fees would be assessed by the State for payments not received by the due date. This was not anticipated. Another payment is due in May 2019 (no specific due date provided as yet). The final two retroactive payments are due in June and July 2019.

The District contacted staff in the Office of the County Administrator and Auditor-Controller to assist with this issue. The Auditor-Controller issued warrants for the first two payments (due April 30 and in May) pending retroactive approval by the Fire Board of Directors.