According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), 22 eligible nursing facilities have applied for a rate increase under the Equitable Cost-Sharing for Publicly-Owned Nursing Facilities (ECPN) program established by the 2010 Legislature. The ECPN Program was established as a mechanism to allow any nursing facility whose physical plant is owned by or whose license is held by a city, county or hospital district to participate in this program, and choose to contribute funds to the operation of that facility, to receive federal match for those contributions. The 2007 rebasing statute, though repealed in 2011 for all other nursing facilities, will be used to determine the maximum rate increase available to a qualified nursing facility.

The rate increases for the following 22 eligible nursing facilities that have applied for rate increases under the ECPN program range from 1.67% to 56.96%:

Adrian Country Living
Appleton Municipal Nursing Home
Bigfork Valley Communities
Cook Community Hospital
Cook County North Shore CC
Cuyuna Care Center
Eveleth Health Services
Grand Village
Heritage Living Center
Johnson Memorial/Dawson Area
Lakewood Health System
LifeCare – Roseau Manor
Littlefork Medical Center
Mahnomen Health Center
New River Medical Center
Parkview Manor
Pelican Valley Health Center
Perham Memorial Home
Ramsey County Care Center
Rice Care Center
Saint Michael's Nursing Home
Sunnyside Care Center

According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, there are 45 facilities in Minnesota that meet the qualifications for the ECPN program.

This program, while similar to the inter-governmental transfer (IGT) program that was repealed in 2009, differs in significant ways. The key difference is that all of the benefit of the program goes to the nursing facility rather than to the state’s general fund. It is very important to note that the city/county government entity will sign an affidavit that makes it clear that government entity and nursing facility are utilizing the intergovernmental transfer program on the “straight and narrow,” which means the city/county/hospital will pay what equates to the state share to draw down federal matching funds, but the matching funds coming back to the facility must be used by the facility, and not transferred back to the city/county “coffers.” DHS did make changes to the ECPN statutory language in the special session omnibus health and human services budget bill to gain approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Since the ECPN program is similar to an intergovernmental transfer, the only way CMS would approve such a program is if it was limited to governmentally owned buildings. Hence the program will never be extended to proprietary or non-proprietary nursing facilities.

Todd Bergstrom
952.851.2486
tbergstrom@careproviders.org

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