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Tags Posts tagged with "ARPA"

ARPA

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The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) has announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved ODP’s proposal to expand funding made available to Administrative Entities (AE) and Counties to support individuals and families on the waiting list. This will allow for the pursuit of innovative strategies to provide alternatives to Community Participation Support (CPS) services. Please read the announcement for full details.

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ODP Announcement 23-001 Update provides additional information about how the Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) utilizes American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds as part of the ongoing systemic recovery of services for people with an intellectual disability and autism. Also included is an Excel spreadsheet showing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Expansion and Recovery Baseline Data (CPS and Employment).

This announcement includes baseline pre-pandemic service user data for both Community Participation Support (CPS) and Supported Employment to inform provider planning efforts related to the supplemental payments. This initiative is designed to provide supplemental payments to support the recovery and service expansion in the following three areas: CPS, employment, and supports coordination. See the announcement for a description of the supplemental payment structure.

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ODP Announcement 23-030 announces a 30-day public comment period on a proposal to expand funding made available to Administrative Entities (AEs)/Counties to support individuals and families on the waiting list to allow for pursuit of innovative strategies and provide alternatives to Community Participation Support (CPS) services.

Staffing shortages and the lingering impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a decrease in the availability of CPS services for some individuals. Spending for Respite and Family Support Services made available to individuals on the waiting list through the Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Spending Plan approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is lower than projected in the majority of counties.

The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) is requesting public comment on the following proposal that would allow AEs to repurpose unspent ARPA respite dollars to develop and fund innovative alternatives to traditional CPS. ODP will review and consider all comments received by 11:59 pm on April 10, 2023, in developing a final proposal for use of these ARPA funds. Public comment may be submitted through one of the following methods:

  • Electronic submission via email.
  • Written submission through mail, addressed to: Julie Mochon, Department of Human Services Office of Developmental Programs 625 Forster Street, Room 510, Harrisburg, PA 17120

Questions about this communication should be sent electronically.

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The Department of Human Services (DHS) issued a communication regarding a delay in the distribution of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding allocated to Personal Care Homes (PCH) and Assisted Living Residences (ALR) by Act 54 of 2022.

As of 2/6/2023, approximately 50 percent of the Act 54 payments for PCH and ALR had been processed by OLTL, and approximately 25 percent of the total facilities for which form submissions have been received have been fully processed and paid by the Treasury. DHS anticipates that it may take until the end of March 2023 for the remaining 50 percent of payments to be processed and finalized. Providers are asked to please be patient while the remaining payments are processed. If your facility is anticipating serious negative consequences from the delay of your payment, please email.

Visit here for information on the exact breakdown of the $26,767,000 of available Act 54 funding for PCH and ALR.

Please remember that Act 54 of 2022 requires the ARPA funding to be obligated by December 31, 2024, and spent by December 31, 2026, or returned to the Commonwealth. Additionally, these funds must be used for COVID-19 related expenses. Providers must keep documentation to prove that these funds were used for their response to the COVID-19 pandemic in case of an audit. Any person or entity accepting an ARPA payment agrees to provide documentation to the Department of Human Services (DHS) upon request for purposes of determining compliance with Act 54 requirements. Instructions on expenditure reporting will be provided at a later date.

DHS recommends that providers consult their accountants or attorneys for further clarification on acceptable uses of ARPA funding. DHS encourages providers to review guidance for eligible expenditures on the US Department of the Treasury website in their Compliance and Reporting Guidance.

If your facility has not submitted an Act 54 Facility Acceptance Form, you may still do so. Do not submit this form if your facility has previously applied for this funding.

Other questions about this information may be directed via email.

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ODP Announcement 23-001 provides information about the Office of Developmental Programs’ (ODP) initiative to utilize up to $40 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds as part of the ongoing systemic recovery of services for people with an intellectual disability and autism.

To support the ongoing restoration of the intellectual disability and autism service delivery system, ODP is implementing a supplemental recovery and expansion initiative utilizing ARPA funds. This initiative is designed to provide supplemental payments to support the recovery and service expansion in the following three areas: Community Participation Support, Employment, and Supports Coordination.

All questions and comments related to this announcement can be directed to the Rate Setting inbox.

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Using funds available through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the Department of Human Services Office of Medical Assistance Programs has developed a plan to create Pediatric Complex Care Resource Centers (PCCRC) across Pennsylvania to support families of children with complex medical needs. This initiative is currently in the planning phase, with the centers slated to launch in early 2023.

For more information, visit here. You can also visit the DHS website for Complex Case Planning information.

If you have any questions, please contact Cindi Hobbes.

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Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

The Office of Developmental Programs (ODP) has extended the deadline for providers and Supports Coordination Organizations (SCO) to utilize the one-time funds made available through ARPA. This had been discussed at RCPA’s recent IDD Committee meeting, and Deputy Secretary Ahrens appreciated the feedback. The deadline to spend the funds has been moved to March 31, 2025.

Please see ODP Announcement 22-107 for details.

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The Department of Human Services (DHS) Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) has announced the launch of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) Funding Reporting portal. The online portal will be available on September 30, 2022, for OLTL providers to submit costs associated with ARPA funding distributed in 2021 in order to comply with DHS reporting requirements.

Background: ARPA Funding Information 

In 2021, federal funding from ARPA was allocated by the General Assembly under Act 24 and enacted by Governor Wolf to provide funding to nursing facilities (NF), personal care homes (PCH), and assisted living residences (ALR). These ARPA funds should be used for COVID-19 relief for costs not otherwise reimbursed by federal, state, or other sources of funding.

In addition, ARPA provided a temporary 10 percent increase to the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) for certain Medicaid expenditures for home and community-based services (HCBS). The funding must be used to enhance, expand, or strengthen HCBS. OLTL outlined in its plan to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initiatives to strengthen the workforce and assist Adult Day Services (ADS) providers. The OLTL ARPA plan directed funding to Personal Assistance Service (PAS), Community Integration (CI), and Residential Habilitation (Res Hab) providers to assist with recruitment and retention of direct care workers. The plan also directed additional funding to providers to strengthen ADS.

ARPA funding must be used for things such as sign-on bonuses, retention payments, COVID-19 related leave benefits and paid time off, vaccination incentives, and/or the purchase of personal protective equipment and testing supplies. Additionally, ADS providers can use the funding for retrofitting adult daily living centers, expenses to re-open the centers, and expenses to develop alternative models to provide ADS.

Additional detailed information about the distribution of the 2021 ARPA funding can be found on the DHS Long-Term Care Providers web page.

ARPA Funding Reporting Portal
Effective September 30, 2022, providers can access the portal and begin to report ARPA 2021 costs. Providers can access the portal through the Funding Portal Login web page. The first report due date will be November 30, 2022, and should reflect two reporting periods. Providers are required to submit reports in the portal on a bi-annual basis thereafter according to their exhaustion of the funds. Please reference the chart below.

Report Period 

Due Dates 

07/01/2021 – 12/31/2021

01/01/2022 – 06/30/2022

 11/30/2022
07/01/2022 – 12/31/2022 2/28/2023
 01/01/2023 – 6/30/2023 8/30/2023
 07/01/2023 – 12/31/2023 2/28/2024

Providers must keep all documentation related to the costs reported in the final cost report for a minimum of five years.

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