As you know, as of October, New York State will assume responsibility for the administration of the SSI State Share of a recipient’s SSI monthly benefit. OTDA will be the State office responsible for the implementation and ongoing administration. We received a number of questions from members regarding the new OTDA congregate care reporting instructions that we sent last week. The original message about the new requirements is at the bottom of this e-mail. Here are the questions and responses from OTDA.
- If a resident leaves a facility, is the provider responsible for completing the “move into” as well as the “move out of” portion of the form
Answer: The provider is only responsible to complete the “move out of” portion of the form. However, if you also fill out the “move into” section, it will improve the chances of no disruption in the client’s monthly benefit - What is OTDA looking for in the Certificate/license/provider number?
Answer: OTDA is collecting this information from all programs that are considered Congregate Care (ex. OMH, Family Care, OPWDD, Adult Home). For OMH Congregate Care level II programs, you should use the number from the operating certificate for each program. - How do we handle moving a person from one program to another within the same agency (after all, the provider name and address will be the same for the new and the former agency)?
Answer: Use the operating certificate for the specific program that a person moves into – that will identify the different address between one program and another. - If an individual is hospitalized it’s likely to be for less than 10 days. Does OTDA still want to be notified of each admission and discharge from the hospital even if the bed will be retained for 90 days and SSA will continue to provide the SS benefits?
Answer: OTDA does not want to be notified of every hospitalization. They only want to be notified if the hospitalization is over 90 days or results in the person being discharged from the residential program. - Is the OTDA email site secure?
Answer: The OTDA email site is NOT currently secure. They are working on making it secure but have not yet reached the point where it is considered HIPPA compliant. Completed forms should be faxed to the OTDA fax number located on the form. - Are there plans to put this form in a secure website so it can be completed and sent online instead of having to fill it out by hand and FAX?
Answer: OTDA is working on having a fillable online form that will be able to be emailed. This option is not currently available, but will be at a future date. - In Section II of the form there is a field for “Nature of Placement, Transfer or Other Change”. What do the codes under Federal Living Arrangement and State Living Arrangement mean? Are providers expected to indicate anything in those fields?
Answer: This field is for OTDA internal use only. Providers do not need to complete this area of the form. - Would OTDA allow providers to build the form in their Electronic Health Record (EHR) system for submission to OTDA?
Answer: OTDA requests that you only submit the OTDA forms to report changes. They do not want to receive other forms.
From: Doug Cooper [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2014 10:57 AM
To: ACL Executive Members
Subject: New Congregate Care Reporting Instructions
As of October, New York State will assume responsibility for the administration of the SSI State Share of a recipient’s SSI monthly benefit. The State share is also referred to as the SSI State Supplement Program (SSP). At that time, New York State will be responsible for the monthly payment of the SSP. OTDA will be the State office responsible for the implementation and ongoing administration.
Recipients will continue to receive the same amount of benefit, but will receive the federal and State benefits separately.
With the change comes new reporting requirements for Congregate Care Facility providers. Since the SSP benefit level is dependent upon the recipient’s living arrangement, New York State is requiring providers to inform them when SSI recipients enter, exit or transfer between a congregate care setting. The links below are to the letter providing the reporting requirements, Congregate Care Change Reporting Form and The State Supplement Program Transition Summary of Changes document.
Dear Congregate Care Agencies and Providers Letter 9/18/14
Congregate Care Change Report Form FINAL PDF version
State Supplement Program Transition Process Summary
If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact OTDA’s toll-free number at (855) 488-0541 or through email at [email protected]