Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 24, December 18, 2024
(a) A
participating county shall use funds collected from the imposition of a fee as
follows:
1. The participating county shall
use at least 90 percent of the fee proceeds for the benefit of hospitals
located in the county, as follows:
i. The
participating county shall make an intergovernmental transfer (IGT) of the
funds under an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the Department
authorizing the Department's use of the funds as the non-Federal share of
Medicaid/NJ FamilyCare payments to the local hospitals; or
ii. The participating county may retain the
funds and use the funds to make payments to local hospitals as authorized in
its approved fee and expenditure report. However, the Commissioner shall only
approve a participating county's proposal to retain funds collected from the
imposition of a fee provided that the participating county demonstrates, to the
satisfaction of the Commissioner, that the county has sufficient funds to make
payments to local hospitals in the amount of the fee proceeds that would
otherwise have been transferred to the Department, plus an amount equal to the
Federal matching funds that would have been paid to the Department had the fee
proceeds been used as the non-Federal share Medicaid/NJ FamilyCare
payments;
2. A
participating county may retain no more than nine percent of the proceeds for
its own use;
3. The county shall
transfer at least one percent of assessment proceeds to the Department for the
cost of administering the program. Should the State's administrative costs for
the program exceed the total value of funding transferred by the participating
counties for this purpose, remaining costs shall be subtracted from amounts
otherwise available as the non-Federal share of payments to hospitals in the
participating counties; and
4.
Unless the county has received approval to retain funds pursuant to (a)1ii
above, the county shall transfer all funds to the State on a quarterly basis,
not later than 15 days after the close of each quarter of the State fiscal
year. Failure to transfer the funds within this timeframe shall result in
penalties imposed by the Department that may include interest penalties of up
to 1.5 percent of the outstanding transfer amount per month and/or removal from
the pilot program.
(b)
The Department shall use the fee proceeds transferred from a participating
county, and any Federal matching funds or other Federal funds generated
therefrom, for the following purposes, the Department may:
1. Increase Medicaid/NJ FamilyCare payments
to hospitals located in the participating county;
2. Make payments to Medicaid/NJ FamilyCare
managed care organizations operating in the participating county for increased
hospital or hospital-related payments; and/or
3. Use the funds for costs directly related
to the administration of the pilot program.
(c) The Department shall not use the
transferred fee proceeds to supplant or offset any current or future State
funds allocated to a participating county, except that payments may be
otherwise limited to the hospital's hospital-specific disproportionate share
(DSH) limit as provided in Section 1923(g) of the Social Security Act ( 42
U.S.C § 1394r-4).
(d) All
hospitals shall maintain records regarding expenditure of funds and make such
records available to the Department, the Department's designated
representative, or other authorized agent, upon request.
