(a) The Department may pay a contracted rate to a nursing facility determined by the Department to be in distress. The contracted rate may exceed the nursing facility's per diem rate as determined pursuant to Section 17 of this Chapter.
(b) The Department shall negotiate and enter into contracts for a temporary contracted rate using the following procedures: - (i) Determine what constitutes a distressed facility, taking into consideration for each nursing facility, the factors specified in (A) and the objectives specified in (B):
- (A) Factors:
- (I) Financial stability and solvency;
- (II) Occupancy (low occupancy as a percentage of capacity or drops quickly);
- (III) Whether or not the Department has assumed temporary management of the facility; and
- (IV) Geographic location of the facility.
- (B) Objectives:
- (I) Reduction in the number and frequency of institutionally acquired infections;
- (II) Reduction in the number and frequency of adverse resident incidents, such as falls, skin tears, and wandering from the facility.
- (III) Reduction in official and unofficial complaints;
- (IV) Maintenance of residents' ideal body weight;
- (V) Maintenance or improvement of nursing facility survey results;
- (VI) Maintenance of ambulatory levels of residents from admission to discharge;
- (VII) Increases in the number of discharges to lesser acute settings;
- (VIII) Decreases in the incidence of residents' incontinence;
- (IX) Maintenance of the provider network in rural or underserved areas; and
- (X) Avoidance of client abandonment by the dissolution or insolvency of the incumbent provider.
- (ii) Solicit proposals for the temporary rate contracts; and
- (iii) Negotiate with providers.
(c) The Department will negotiate with providers determined to be in distress on an individual basis to determine whether a contracted rate is appropriate for that nursing facility, using the Department's distressed facility criteria. - (i) Prior to such negotiations, the provider shall submit to the Department, in the format prescribed by the Department:
- (A) A proposed contracted rate; and
- (B) Supporting documentation, including:
- (I) All relevant financial records and medical records which demonstrate the distressed status of the facility;
- (II) A proposed method of monitoring and building overall census, such method to be subject to review and approval by the Department; and
- (III) The additional cost the nursing facility will reasonably and necessarily be incurring to maintain required daily operations in compliance with all State and Federal provisions.
- (ii) The Department may request, and the provider shall furnish before a contracted rate is established, additional information to document the distressed status and added costs.
- (iii) The contracted rate shall be the rate agreed upon by the provider and the Department for the maintenance of daily operations focused on client health and safety. The rate shall apply to all Medicaid clients in the nursing facility, unless otherwise agreed by the Department.
- (iv) The Department may establish monitoring criteria and procedures to determine whether the facility continues to maintain client health and safety.
- (v) If the Department determines that the client's health and safety are not being maintained in accordance with State and Federal standards, the Department shall suspend the nursing facility's temporary rate contract and work with the Office of Healthcare Licensing and Survey to take appropriate action. The contracted temporary rate shall be the rate set for new ownership of a distressed facility pending the return of overall facility census to prior year's operating levels (as documented by the Department) or for up to a maximum of six (6) months. Upon expiration of the temporary contracted rate, the Department may, at its discretion, re-evaluate the continued need for a temporary rate for up to six (6) additional months or terminate the temporary rate contract. Upon final termination, the Department shall reinstate the nursing facility's Medicaid reimbursement rate to the per diem rate established pursuant to Section 17 of this Chapter.
(d) All inclusive. The contracted rate shall be an all inclusive per diem rate for all services and supplies furnished by the nursing facility, except as specified in Section 24 of this Chapter, and as otherwise agreed by the Department.
(e) Maximum rate. The negotiated rate shall not exceed the nursing facility's actual costs.
(f) Until the Department agrees, in writing, to a contracted rate, reimbursement for services provided to clients shall be limited to the nursing facility's per diem rate as determined in Section 17 of this Chapter.
(g) The Department's refusal to agree to a contracted rate requested by a provider is not an adverse action for purposes of the Rules and Regulations of Wyoming Medicaid, Chapter 4, Administrative Hearings.
048-7 Wyo. Code R. § 7-23