Health Facilities Commission seeks extension to finish CMS recertifications amid backlog

The Health Facilities Commission asked the Senate Finance and Ways and Means Committee on April 15 to extend the statutory deadline for completing facility recertifications, a move the commission’s executive director said is needed to work through a backlog created by increased federal workload and a recent federal shutdown.

“My name is Logan Grant. I’m the executive director of the Health Facilities Commission,” Grant told the committee in a presentation explaining that the commission performs recertifications under contract with the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). He said the federal shutdown prevented recertifications for about five weeks and that CMS has added responsibilities while the commission’s federal share of its budget has not risen in more than a decade.

Grant described the corrective action plan the commission submitted to CMS and said the agency is pursuing options including hiring contract surveyors and creating dedicated survey positions to handle urgent complaint investigations so routine recertifications can proceed. “When complaints increase by 60%,” he said, “that just drastically increase[s] the amount of time that you have to be there in order to perform those” recertifications.

Members pressed the commission on whether CMS had accepted the corrective action plan and on the sufficiency of the commission’s budget request. Grant said the plan has been submitted and that an appeals process about performance metrics remains underway; he said the requested $1.8 million would help the agency hire contractors and get closer to clearing the backlog but that final costs will depend on procurement outcomes.

The committee recommended the bill extending the deadline for passage to the committee on the calendar. Committee members also discussed the risk that state action cannot override federal CMS requirements and noted the commission’s plan to submit corrective actions to CMS and to seek additional state funding if needed.

What’s next: The committee recommended the measure for passage to the calendar; any final change in deadlines or funding will depend on subsequent calendar action and whether the Legislature approves additional money in the budget.