Section 2TTTTT: Hospital Investment and Performance Trust Fund
[Text of section added by 2022, 126, Sec. 22. See, also, Section 2TTTTT added by 2022, 177, Sec. 24, below.]
Section 2TTTTT. (a) There shall be a Hospital Investment and Performance Trust Fund. The secretary of health and human services shall be the trustee of the fund and shall expend all money in the fund to make payments to acute hospitals or to care organizations under contract with the executive office of health and human services to provide MassHealth services pursuant to an approved state plan or federal waiver; provided, however, that such care organizations shall use all such payments to make payments to qualifying acute hospitals. There shall be credited to the fund: (i) any transfers from the Health Safety Net Trust Fund established in section 66 of chapter 118E; (ii) an amount equal to any federal financial participation revenues claimed and received by the commonwealth for eligible expenditures made from the fund; (iii) any revenue from appropriations or other money authorized by the general court and specifically designated to be credited to the fund; and (iv) interest earned on any money in the fund. Amounts credited to the fund shall be expended without further appropriation.
(b) Money in the fund shall be expended for Medicaid payments under an approved state plan or federal waiver; provided, however, that all payments from the fund shall be: (i) subject to the availability of federal financial participation; (ii) made only under federally-approved payment methods; (iii) consistent with federal funding requirements and all applicable federal payment limits as determined by the secretary; and (iv) subject to the terms and conditions of applicable agreements between acute hospitals or care organizations and the executive office of health and human services. To accommodate timing discrepancies between the receipt of revenue and related expenditures, the comptroller may certify for payment amounts not to exceed the most recent revenue estimates as certified by the secretary to be transferred, credited or deposited under this section. The secretary shall, to the maximum extent possible, administer the fund to obtain federal financial participation for the expenditures of non-federal money from the fund. Money remaining in the fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund and shall be available for expenditure in subsequent fiscal years. The payments from the fund shall supplement and not supplant Medicaid payments that would be made to providers in the absence of such payments.
[Subsection (c) as added by 2022, c. 126, Sec. 22 effective until October 1, 2027. For text effective October 1, 2027, see below.]
(c)(1) The secretary shall expend money in the fund, including all amounts credited to the fund, for payments to qualifying acute hospital providers under contract with the executive office of health and human services or under subcontracts with care organizations that contract with the executive office in connection with the MassHealth program as provided further, in paragraphs (2) to (4), inclusive.
(2) The secretary shall annually expend amounts from the fund averaging, over a period of 5 years, not less than $1,210,000,000 per year; provided, however, that all such payments shall fall into 1 of the following categories: (i) health equity incentive payments; (ii) clinical quality incentive payments; (iii) rate payments for services provided to MassHealth members; or (iv) targeted payments to: (A) freestanding pediatric acute hospitals; or (B) nonprofit teaching acute hospitals that provide medical, surgical, emergency and obstetrical services and are affiliated with a state-owned medical school. The secretary may determine funding allocations among and within each such category within a given year; provided, however, that such allocations shall be consistent with all approved federal waivers and state plan provisions; and provided further, that the secretary shall allocate an average of not less than $560,000,000 per year, over a period of 5 years, for the rate payments described in clause (iii).
(3) Of the targeted payments described in clause (iv) of paragraph (2), the secretary shall expend annually from the fund: (i) $25,000,000 to freestanding pediatric acute hospitals, of which 90 per cent shall be paid to the freestanding pediatric hospital with the largest volume of inpatient discharges in fiscal year 2019; and (ii) $25,000,000 to nonprofit teaching acute hospitals that provide medical, surgical, emergency and obstetrical services and are affiliated with a state-owned medical school.
(4) Of the health equity incentive payments and clinical quality incentive payments described in clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph (2), the secretary shall make interim payments to qualifying hospitals based on the secretary's estimate of each such hospital's final payment for the measurement period, with each such estimate as determined by the secretary. As soon as practicable after the close of the measurement period, the secretary shall determine the final amount of each qualifying hospital's health equity incentive payment and clinical quality incentive payment and shall reconcile each hospital's interim payment with its final payment.
[Subsection (c) as amended by 2022, 126, Sec. 23 effective October 1, 2027 applicable as provided by 2022, 126, Sec. 186. For text effective until October 1, 2027, see above.]
(c) [reserved].
(d) If any portion of the final annual amount allocated by the secretary to health equity incentive payments or clinical quality incentive payments is unearned during the relevant measurement period for such payment, as determined by the secretary, the secretary shall transfer the state's share of that unearned amount to the Health Safety Net Trust Fund established in section 66 of chapter 118E.
(e) If the amount in the fund exceeds, for a reason other than that described in subsection (d), the amount sufficient to make the payments described in subsection (c), at any point in time, as determined by the secretary, the secretary may transfer the state's share of such amount to the Health Safety Net Trust Fund established in said section 66 of said chapter 118E.
[Text of section added by 2022, 177, Sec. 24. See, also, Section 2TTTTT added by 2022, 126, Sec. 22, above.]
Section 2TTTTT. (a) There shall be an interagency services reserve fund established on the books of the commonwealth to be expended without prior appropriation. The fund shall be credited with money from public and private sources, including gifts, grants and donations, interest earned on such money, any other money authorized by the general court and specifically designated to be credited to the fund and any funds provided from other sources. Money in the fund shall be used to fund the operations of the interagency review team established under section 16R of chapter 6A. The secretary of health and human services shall administer the fund and shall make expenditures for the purpose of covering the cost of providing additional evaluation as needed by the interagency review team for an individual eligible under said section 16R of said chapter 6A. Any unexpended balance in the fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund and shall be available for expenditure in the subsequent fiscal year.
(b) Annually, not later than August 1, the interagency review team shall submit required financial reporting on the fund, including reporting of expenditures from the fund, to the secretary of health and human services, the secretary of education and the house and senate committees on ways and means.