September 8th Newsletter - Sachs Policy Group

Governor Cuomo Announces College and School Reporting Requirements, Plans to Protect Public Workers in Future Health Emergencies

Today (September 8^th), Governor Cuomo held a press conference in which he announced that the status of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York State remains steady. Of the 57,826 individuals tested yesterday, 557 (0.96 percent) tested positive. The infection rate statewide has remained below 1 percent for the past 32 days, and the infection rate in New York City was 0.9 percent yesterday. Hospitalizations, individuals in intensive care, and deaths also remained at low levels.

The Governor announced the launch of an online dashboard called the COVID-19 Report Card, which will track COVID-19 data required to be reported daily by school districts across the state, including:

Positive cases by date of students and staff by school and school district;
Whether the school/district are remote, in-person, or hybrid;
Number of students and staff on-site;
Percentage of on-site students and staff who test positive;
Number of tests administered by the school, test type, lab used, and lag time; and
Date of last submission/update.

This information will be publicly available to students and parents here. Also, given recent outbreaks at colleges across the country and in New York State, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) will require colleges to notify the State if they have 100 or more COVID-19 cases. Such colleges may have to transition to remote learning. Finally, the Governor announced that Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, and West Virginia have been added to the State’s travel advisory, which requires individuals traveling to those states and returning to New York to quarantine. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have been removed from the list.

Over the weekend, Governor Cuomo signed legislation (S8617B/A10832) requiring all public employers to create plans to adequately protect workers in the event of another communicable disease emergency. The plans would apply to both the state and localities, including school districts, and must include protocols for personal protective equipment, employee exposure, remote work, and testing/contact tracing. Plans must be submitted to unions and labor management committees within 150 days and must be finalized on April 1, 2021. The Governor’s press release is available here.

Governor Cuomo Issues Executive Order 202.60

On September 4^th, Governor Cuomo signed Executive Order 202.60 (available here), which extends the provisions of many previous orders through October 4^th. The extended orders include Executive Orders 202 through 202.21, 202.27 through 202.30, 202.38 through 202.40, and 202.48 through 202.50, which provide flexibility on major areas such as telehealth, provider qualifications, background checks, and provider locations. More details on specific extended provisions are available in SPG’s updated Waiver Timeline Tracker.

The Order also clarifies an employee’s eligibility for paid sick leave if the employee voluntarily travels to a state on New York’s travel advisory list, indicating that the employee would still be eligible if they traveled to the state before it was added to the travel advisory list. As announced by Governor Cuomo last week, the Order also directs coroners or medical examiners with reasonable suspicion that COVID-19 or the flu was a cause of death to administer both tests within 48 hours of death if testing was not performed 14 days prior to death by the nursing home, hospital, or hospice agency.

HHS Adds Assisted Living Facilities to Eligible Applicants for Provider Relief General Distribution Funds

On September 1^st, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) added state-licensed/certified assisted living facilities to the list of eligible applicants for the Phase 2 General Distribution of the CARES Act Provider Relief Fund. This includes assisted living facilities that do not bill Medicare or Medicaid and were not eligible for relief funding previously. Assisted living facilities have until September 13^th to submit their Tax Identification Number (TIN) for validation and subsequently apply for up to 2% of their annual patient revenue. HHS has developed a curated list of TINs representing ALFs; if a facility’s TIN is not on this list, it may submit a TIN validation request and HHS will conduct additional analysis. If an applicant receives the results of their TIN validation from HHS after September 13th, they will still be able to complete and submit their application. Relevant new or modified FAQs for skilled nursing facilities include:

In order to calculate revenue from “patient care,” assisted living facilities may include patient care revenue that supports residents’ nutritional, housing, activities of daily living, and medical needs, including purchased services.
For residents living in skilled nursing or assisted living facilities, resident fees that cover their accommodations can be considered patient service revenue.
The revenue from independent living units as part of larger assisted or skilled nursing facilities fits within the definition of “patient care.”

The General Distribution FAQs are available here. The application portal is available here.

CMS Approves 1915(c) Children’s Waiver Appendix K Request

On September 4^th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved New York’s second Appendix K request for the 1915(c) Children’s Waiver. This second request makes two changes to the previous Appendix K language, which continues to be effective, by implementing required changes to retainer payments and extending all reporting deadlines. Retainer payments will be available for designated Community Habilitation and Day Habilitation providers for up to three 30-day episodes per individual. Providers may request approval to receive retainer payments by submitting an attestation to DOH. The waiver request is effective retroactively from March 1, 2020 through February 28, 2021.

The waiver request is available here. The CMS approval letter is available here.

Updated OPWDD Guidance Documents

OPWDD has released the following updated guidance for providers regarding Day Habilitation, Community Habilitation, Prevocational Services, Pathway to Employment, and Supported Employment: