Following the end of the 2019 legislative session, the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) staff have been hard at work implementing some of the statutory changes to policies and procedures, as well as other administrative changes, which impact providers of residential home and community-based services (HCBS).
Provider Cost Reporting vs. Labor Market Reporting
The provider cost reporting requirements for DWRS were enacted prior to 2019 for the purpose of providing DHS with hard data to support research on the cost of providing services, and to make recommendations on component values and inflationary adjustments. This year, the final health and human services omnibus bill signed by the Governor included new requirements for labor market reporting to be used for assessments of workforce and service access. Providers may now be wondering about the similarities and differences between these data sets. Here’s a little chart that may help shed light on what needs to be done.
Cost Reporting |
Labor Market Reporting |
Collected annually on a 5-year cycle beginning in 2020 (20% sample of providers with rates calculated by DWRS drawn every year) |
Collected annually: -DWRS providers beginning Fall 2019 -Other HCBS providers beginning in 2020 |
Gathers information about specific dollars associated with service provision based on current cost centers |
Gathers information about direct care worker salaries, benefits and retention |
Data to be submitted online via portal |
Data submission method TBD |
Measures the cost of providing services |
Measures the health of the direct support workforce |
§256B.4914, Subd. 10a, para. a |
§256B.4914, Subd. 10a, para. g; §256B.4912, Subd. 1a |
DHS Announces Implementation of the Account Validation Service (AVS) for Medical Assistance (MA)
Pursuant to §1940 of the federal Social Security Act and MN Statutes, §256.01, subd. 18f, DHS recently announced in a bulletin that it will implement its electronic asset verification program called the Account Validation Service (AVS) beginning September 1, 2019. This service will be used to help identify unreported accounts when determining Medical Assistance (MA) (Minnesota’s Medicaid program) eligibility for people whose MA basis of eligibility is MA-ABD (aged, blind, disabled). Applicants and enrollees must authorize the state to request information from financial institutions as a condition of Medicaid eligibility upon initial application, status change to MA-ABD, or annual renewal. This is of interest to HCBS providers because of the potential for delays in approval of the applications, especially if unreported assets are discovered, which can delay placement and/or reimbursement. For more information, refer to bulletin #19-21-02 found here.
Efficiency updates to assessment process, short-term institutional stays, DD screening document
DHS made several updates to streamline processes and procedures related to the DD screening document. While these changes apply most directly to lead agencies, residential providers should be aware of them.
Eligibility updates – a new page added to the Community-Based Services Manual provides information about eligibility updates, which can be used to extend the time in which lead agencies can determine program eligibility without another in-person assessment
DD assessments – the requirement for an in-person DD assessment has been removed for a change in the county of financial responsibility and guardianship status
Assessment applicability and timelines – policies about who participates in an assessment, and change in condition, have been updated
Short-term institutional stays – this policy has been updated to allow the DD waiver to remain open for people who have short-term (less than 30 days) nursing facility stays
DD screening document and code book – DHS has made changes to sections that include action types, legal representatives, exits and screening scenarios
The full announcement of these updates can be found here.