Great News: Great Lakes Achieves ARPA Relief for Indiana HME Providers

Published in Government Relations on November 02, 2022

Congratulations to Indiana, and the Great Lakes State Association, on achieving ARPA relief for Indiana HME providers. This process started for them back in 2021 and their work paid off.

Read below, as reported by Great Lakes:

During the summer of 2021, Great Lakes initiated contact with the State Medicaid Directors in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan to request support for HME providers in the allocation of federal funds that states were receiving from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for home- and community-based providers’ relief due to the public health emergency. Great Lake’s efforts were collaborative with the American Association for Homecare and NCART.

Per CMS guidance, states may apply this increase to among other things, home- and community-based services (HCBS) which have been broadly defined to include HME under the Home Health benefit. Great Lakes’ June 2021 letters to Medicaid Directors below FYI:
•   Illinois Letter to Director Eagleson at HFS
•   Indiana Letter to Director Taylor at FSSA
•   Michigan Letter to Director Massey at MDHHS

For more than a year, Great Lakes continued contact with these agencies to urge ARPA relief support for HME providers. In July, we received word from Indiana Medicaid Director Allison Taylor, Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), that they had submitted their ARPA proposal to the FSSA leadership team for consideration of HME providers. We’ve been waiting for word and on Tuesday, we received notice from Director Taylor that HME providers are now eligible for ARPA relief funds through the FSSA HME/DME Stabilization Grant. She shared an FAQ and presentation slides with additional details. The information has been posted on the agency’s website here:
https://www.in.gov/fssa/ompp/hcbs-enhanced-fmap-spending-plan/

Great Lakes followed up yesterday with FSSA, along with our Indiana lobbyists, to clarify grant details such as the type of HME claims included (fee-for-service and/or managed care), and to verify the claim dates used to determine the relief amount. In the meantime, we urge members to submit the required Attestation Form via this link. A signed and submitted attestation form is the only required documentation to demonstrate eligibility for the grant and must be submitted to FSSA by November 18, 2022.

We will report back as we learn more details. Feel free to contact Great Lakes executive director Kam Yuricich at kam@greatlakeshme.org with any questions or you can submit questions and/or feedback to the agency directly at hcbs.spendplan@fssa.in.gov.

This achievement for Indiana HME providers was a massive team effort! We’d like to thank Director Taylor and her team at the Indiana Medicaid agency for recognizing the critical role of our members during the public health emergency. We'd like to acknowledge the tenacious efforts of Great Lakes president Chuck Williams, executive director Kam Yuricich, and numerous Great Lakes Indiana providers who engaged with FSSA officials and state legislators on this critical issue. Also, thank you to our national allies, Laura Williard and David Chandler at the American Association for Homecare, and Don Clayback, former NCART executive director for their assistance.

Indiana becomes the third state in the country (Ohio and Massachusetts) to receive ARPA funds for HME providers as part of the home- and community-based provider relief. Great Lakes will continue work in Illinois and Michigan to gain support for HME providers in those states as well and share the latest Indiana news with the Medicaid Directors.

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