Current through Register Vol. 30, No. 38, September 20, 2024
A. Gradual Medical Education (GME)
reimbursement as of July 1, 2020.
1. In
addition to distributions according to Section
R9-22-712.05, and subject to the
availability of funds and approval by CMS, the Administration shall annually
distribute monies appropriated for the GME programs approved by the
Administration to hospitals for direct and indirect costs for graduate medical
education programs which were established or expanded on or after July 1, 2020.
The Administration shall estimate the distributions using information possessed
by the Administration as of December 15 of each calendar year. The actual
distributions will be made using information possessed by the Administration as
of September first of the year in which the new residency or fellowship
begins.
2. Eligible Hospitals. A
hospital is eligible for distributions under this Section if all of the
following apply:
a. It is a hospital in
Arizona that is the sponsoring institution of, or a participating institution
in, one or more of the GME programs in Arizona;
b. It incurs direct costs for the training of
residents in the GME programs, which costs are or will be reported on the
hospital's Medicare Cost Report;
c.
It is not administered by or does not receive its primary funding from an
agency of the federal government;
d. It has established a new GME program or
expanded the number of residents or fellows in an existing GME program on or
after July 1, 2020.
3.
Eligible positions. For purposes of determining distributions under this
Section the following resident and fellowship positions qualify to the extent
that the training takes place in Arizona at an eligible health care facility:
a. Filled resident or fellow positions in
approved programs which began on or after July 1, 2020;
b. Eligible positions do not include
residents or fellows that receive payments for services under the Access to
Professional Services Initiative (APSI) program established in the Contractors'
prepaid capitation contracts with the Administration.
4. Annual Reporting
a. By December 15 of each year, a GME program
shall provide all of the following information for GME programs and positions
which are expected to be eligible for funding under this Section as of the
upcoming academic year (i.e., July 1 to June 30 of each year):
i. The program name and number assigned by
the accrediting organization if available;
ii. The original date of accreditation if
available;
iii. The names of the
sponsoring institution and all participating institutions expected as of the
date of reporting;
iv. The number
of anticipated resident and fellowship positions eligible for funding as of the
upcoming academic year;
v. The
number of months or partial months during the upcoming academic year that each
resident or fellow is expected to work in each hospital or in a non-hospital
setting under agreement between the non-hospital setting and the reporting
hospital;
vi. The academic year of
anticipated resident and fellowship positions;
vii. The length of the program; and
viii. The names and other information
requested by AHCCCS to ensure the total GME distributions for each eligible
position are not greater than the costs for each eligible position in the
Intern and Resident Information System (IRIS) file.
b. By December 15 of each year, a GME program
located in a county with a population of less than 500,000 persons shall
provide the estimated one-time and ongoing costs for each program which it
expects to be eligible for funding.
c. By September 1 of each year, a GME program
shall provide the actual name of residents and fellows hired in the current
academic year and other information requested by AHCCCS to ensure that total
GME distributions for the eligible position are not greater than the costs for
each eligible position in the IRIS file.
B. Preliminary allocation of funds for urban
hospitals. Annually by January 15, the Administration shall estimate the annual
GME distributions under this Section using the funds appropriated for hospitals
in counties with a population of 500,000 persons or more based on the number of
new residents and fellows in graduate medical education programs in the
following manner:
1. Each eligible resident
and fellow is placed into tiers with the following priority:
a. Returning residents and fellows. A
returning resident or fellow is a resident or fellow whose position received
funding under this Section for the previous academic year and who is continuing
in the same GME program.
b.
Residents and fellows that are not a returning resident or fellow but are in a
GME program for Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, General Pediatrics,
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Psychiatry including Subspecialties, General
Surgery, and any other program determined as high needs by the AHCCCS
Administration.
c. Residents or
fellows that are not returning residents or fellows and are not described in
subsection (1)(b) but are in a GME program that received funding under this
Section in a prior year.
d. All
other residents and fellows.
2. The amount of the
distribution for each GME program for direct costs is calculated as the product
of:
a. The number of eligible residents and
fellows adjusted for the number of months or partial months worked in each
hospital or non-hospital setting under agreement between the non-hospital
setting and the reporting hospitals;
b. The Arizona Medicaid utilization as
determined by
R9-22-712.05(B)(4)(c)(i)
in the previous calendar year; and,
c. The average direct cost per resident
determined under
R9-22-712.05(B)(4)(d)
in the previous calendar year.
3.
If monies are still remaining after direct funding has been allocated, indirect
funding shall be allocated based on the priority of each tier and sub-tier. The
amount of the distribution for each GME program for indirect costs is
calculated as the product of:
a. The number
of allocated eligible residents and fellows adjusted for the number of months
or partial months worked in each hospital or non-hospital setting under
agreement between the non-hospital setting and the reporting
hospital;
b. The indirect cost per
resident per month calculated in
R9-22-712.05(D)(4)(b)(vi)
in the previous calendar year; and
c. Twelve months.
d. Funds shall be allocated based on the
priority of each tier and sub-tier. Distributions for eligible positions in a
tier or subtier with a lower priority will not receive a distribution until
distributions are allocated for the costs of all positions in a higher tier or
sub-tier. If funding is insufficient to fully fund a tier or sub-tier, the
remainder of funds will be prorated for eligible positions in that tier or
sub-tier.
4. Payments are made to
participating hospitals based on the FTEs who worked at their hospitals per
year.
C. Preliminary
allocation of funds for rural hospitals. Annually by January 15, the
Administration shall estimate the annual GME distributions under this Section
using the funds appropriated for rural hospitals based on the number of
eligible resident and fellow positions in graduate medical education programs
located in a county with a population of less than 500,000 persons in the
following manner:
1. Each resident and fellow
will then be placed into a tier with the following priority:
a. Returning residents and fellows. A
returning resident or fellow is a resident or fellow whose position received
funding under this Section for the previous academic year and who is continuing
in the same GME program.
b.
Residents and fellows that are not a returning resident or fellow but are in a
GME program for Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, General Pediatrics,
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Psychiatry including Subspecialties, General
Surgery, and any other program determined as high needs by the AHCCCS
Administration.
c. Residents or
fellows that are not returning residents or fellows and are not described in
subsection (1)(b) but are in a GME program that received funding under this
Section in a prior year.
d. All
other residents and fellows.
2. Residents and fellows in each tier are
further divided into four sub-tiers with the following priority based on the
location of the sponsoring or participating hospital:
a. Hospitals in a county designated by the
Health Resource and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health
& Human Services as a HPSA with a greater than 85 percent primary care
shortage.
b. Hospitals in a county
designated as a HPSA with a greater than 50 percent to 85 percent primary care
shortage.
c. Hospitals in a county
designated as a HPSA with a 25-50 percent primary care shortage.
d. Hospitals in a county designated as a HPSA
with a less than 25 percent primary care shortage.
3. Funds shall first be allocated for direct
and indirect costs based in order of priority of each tier. If not enough
funding is available to fully fund a tier or sub-tier, the remainder of funds
will be prorated in a tier or sub-tier.
4. The amount of the distribution for each
GME program for direct costs is calculated as the product of:
a. The number of eligible residents and
fellows adjusted for the number of months or partial months worked in each
hospital or non-hospital setting under agreement between the non-hospital
setting and the reporting hospitals;
b. The Arizona Medicaid utilization
determined under
R9-22-712.05(B)(4)(c)(i);
and,
c. The actual direct cost per
resident per year.
5. The
amount of the distribution for each GME program for indirect costs is
calculated as the product of:
a. The number of
allocated eligible residents and fellows adjusted for the number of months or
partial months worked in each hospital or non-hospital setting under agreement
between the non-hospital setting and the reporting hospital;
b. The indirect cost per resident per month
calculated in
R9-22-712.05(D)(4)(b)(vi)
in the previous calendar year; and
c. Twelve months.
6. Payments are made to participating
hospitals based on the FTEs who worked at their hospitals per
year.
D. Final allocation
of funds. Annually no sooner than September 1 following the start of the
academic year, the Administration will recalculate the allocation for urban and
rural hospitals using the same methodology used to estimate distributions, but
using the actual residents and fellows as reported in
R9-22-712.06(a)(4)(c).
F.
Exclusions. To ensure that residents and fellows are not double counted
residents/fellows which receive funding through
R9-22-712.06 shall not receive
funding through
R9-22-712.05.