Behavioral Health Rate Study, 2022-23: Cost Study Information

Yes, both the cost report webinar presentation and the webinar recording can be accessed here: https://dbhdd.georgia.gov/bh-rate-study. The webinar can also be accessed on the DBHBB YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrxNHWZLcOI&t=12s

• Please report state fiscal year (SFY) 2019 and SFY 2022 data. The Georgia state fiscal year runs from July to June.
• If your provider has CBHRS fee-for-service (FFS) revenue for only one year, then you may report a single year. If your provider has CBHRS FFS revenue for only a partial year (e.g., 6 months), then please only report the partial year. 
• Please indicate the reporting period where prompted on the “Cover Page” tab.

The scope of the cost report is limited to Medicaid fee-for-service CBHRS services. Unless otherwise instructed on a specific line in the cost report, please do not include CBHRS managed care (e.g., CMO), other Medicaid (e.g., non-CBHRS Medicaid services), or other payers (e.g., Medicare, VA) data.

If a staff member functions in two (2) roles providing different services (i.e., signing differently), you can allocate that staff member’s total hours to two different staffing categories. For example, if a staff member spent 80% of their workday in the Paraprofessional role and 20% of their workday in the Certified Addiction Counselor, their hours would split 80/20.

Please reference the DBHDD Community Behavioral Health Provider Manual (https://dbhdd.org/files/Provider-Manual-BH.pdf) for definitions of non-billable activities (page 411).

Non-billable activities include, but are not limited to, those activities or administrative work that are related to a CBHRS service yet do not fall within the Service Definition. For example, confirming appointments, observation/monitoring, tutoring, transportation, completing paperwork, communication/coordination between practitioners employed by the same agency, and other administrative duties not explicitly allowed within the Service Guidelines are non-billable activities.

Please include only staff that are partially or fully funded by CHBRS. If the staff is partially funded by CBHRS, the provider would then need to determine the amount of time in a week they spend on CBHRS services. For example, if a psychiatrist spends 25% of their working week on CBHRS services and the remaining 75% of their working week is related to Medicare billing, then they would be entered as a 0.25 FTE (i.e., 25/75).

Administrative supervisors that also provide direct care can have their costs allocated between the direct care cost section and the indirect care (i.e., administrative) cost section. For example, if a supervisor spends 50% of their time providing direct care services and 50% of their time in an administrative support staff role, they may split their costs between these two lines.

Yes, these costs are incurred by the agency for delivery of CBHRS services, so may be reported. Any administrative costs that are not included in the cost report as a discrete line item may be included in the “Other Indirect Care Costs” line, with a description of what the costs include in the “Other Indirect Care – Qualitative Response” line (e.g., “audit preparation and accreditation preparation”).

A full FTE (i.e., 1.0 FTE) in the “Staffing Patterns” tab should represent a 40-hour work week. If the provider has staff that works more than 40 hours per week on average, then the reported FTE would be higher than 1.0 (e.g., staff that works on average 45 hours a week would be reported as FTE 1.125 FTE (45 hours / 40 hours)). If the provider has staff that works less than 40 hours per week on average, then the reported FTE would be less than 1.0. In the scenario described in the question, the provider would report the staff as 0.9 FTE (i.e., 36 hours / 40 hours).

The tool is designed to collect and analyze the reasonable and necessary costs of providing CBHRS.

Your participation is crucial to forming a basis for potential rate changes, if deemed applicable, through the rate study.

This effort is part of an ongoing rate methodology study, to assess the potential need for changes in the current payment methodology for CBHRS services.

Overall, the tool is designed to collect and analyze the reasonable and necessary costs of providing CBHRS services via fee-for-service Medicaid, including:

• Wages
• Revenue/units
• Practitioner hours
• Direct and indirect costs
• Staffing information
• Individuals-to-staff ratios (group services only)

The tool contains detailed instructions for self-guided completion on the Instructions tab. Further details will be provided during the webinar session and will be available in the recorded webinar.

The    Cost Reporting Survey Tool  is now available for download.

Please email an attached copy to [email protected] by January 20th, 2023.

Time will be allotted for Q&A during the webinar.

• For webinar or cost reporting tool technical assistance, contact Deloitte’s cost reporting tool team at [email protected].

For all other inquiries, contact Erika Stinson at [email protected].

In instances where hours should be allocated in cells that are blacked out on the “Hrs Alloc” worksheets, please provide the in clinic, out of clinic, and telehealth hours in the comment box at the bottom of the worksheet. Please indicate which survey question(s) and service(s) the text response is referring to.

Please include all the relevant information for the CAC level 4 in the “Comments” section of each relevant tab. Please use this approach for any other missing items you may come across in the tool, but please also continue to email Erika Stinson and Deloitte so that we are aware.