Subject:
Title
Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) Low Income Pool (LIP) Letter of Agreement for Circles of Care, Inc.
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Fiscal Impact:
FY 20-21: There is no impact to the General Fund. The required match of up to $1,143,805 is currently budgeted in 0001 200662.
Dept/Office:
Housing and Human Services Department
Requested Action:
Recommendation
It is requested that the Board of County Commissioners (1) approve and authorize the County Manager to execute an agreement with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s Low Income Pool upon approval of Risk Management and the County Attorney’s Office, (2) approve the use of budgeted Baker Act General Revenue funds for the required Low Income Pool match, and (3) authorize the County Manager to approve all necessary budget change requests.
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Summary Explanation and Background:
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved a Research and Demonstration Waiver Application for the State of Florida, relating to Medicaid reform, which became effective on July 1, 2006. As part of the Waiver, the Low Income Pool (LIP) was "established to ensure continued government support for the provision of health care services to Medicaid, underinsured, and uninsured populations.” The Low Income Pool is a capped annual allotment from the federal government for the state of Florida.
Access to Low Income Pool funds is through a non-federal match and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration requires matching funds to be tax based resources from local governmental entities, such as sales tax or General Revenue. In 2018, an amendment was approved to allow for the use of LIP funds for community mental health providers under a pilot program that provides additional behavioral health services for persons aged 21 and older with serious mental illness (SMI), substance use disorder (SUD) or SMI with co-occurring SUD. Circles of Care, Inc. (CoC) is Brevard’s designated Community Mental Health Center. The resulting leveraged Low Income Pool funding maybe used for expenditures to cover the cost of charity care for these services.
The Housing and Human Services Department and Circles of Care, Inc. have been working with the State and Legislators to have CoC included on the list of approved Behavioral Healthcare Providers under the pilot program. The Housing and Human Services Department will utilize a portion of the General Fund already budgeted for Baker Act Match for the required LIP matching funds for the FY 20-21 Low Income Pool program. The LIP Agreement identifies two levels of required match. The lower number ($1,041,805) represents a special provision of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act which adjusts the match percentage if the national Emergency Declaration related to the pandemic is still in place and the higher amount ($1,143,237) reflects the match if the Emergency Declaration expires before the funds are given to the State.
The match funds will result in the leveraging of $3,272,000 in total funding to support Baker Act and the aforementioned expanded services. One hundred percent of the leveraged funds will be used to support these activities.
Clerk to the Board Instructions:
None