WASHINGTON — After three Republican members of Congress charged that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was needlessly delaying distributing Medicaid funding to New York counties, the governor’s administration announced it will soon hand out the money.
Congress’s first coronavirus relief bill that was passed in mid-March increased the share of Medicaid spending that the federal government will cover, called the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), by 6.2 percent.
According to the New York State Association of Counties and U.S. Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, John Katko, R-Camillus, and Peter King, R-Seaford, that change to enhance FMAP reimbursement makes $2.5 billion in federal funds available to New York to be split between state and county governments.
But a New York Division of Budget official said their office is not sure how much total reimbursement New York will get and that the state and counties are still totaling up eligible Medicaid spending.
“After the federal government repeatedly changed the guidance related to these funds, we’re now making final determinations on how much each county will receive in enhanced FMAP and will release it as soon as possible,” said Freeman Klopott, a spokesman for the state Division of the Budget.
Klopott said the Division of Budget estimates counties will receive about 15 to 20 percent of the total reimbursement that the state gets from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In the state’s financial plan, New York estimated it would draw $1.45 billion in enhanced FMAP funding for the first six months of 2020. County reimbursement would be on top of that.
“Counties and New York City, based on the amount of county tax dollars allocated to Medicaid during this period, are expected to receive about $500 million of these funds when the state releases the local share of FMAP,” said Mark F. LaVigne, deputy director of the New York State Association of Counties. “New York counties and the City of New York together pay $7.5 billion for the state’s Medicaid program each year.”
Stefanik, Katko and King wrote to Gov. Andrew Cuomo Monday expressing “deep concern” that counties have not yet received the funds although states could access the money as early as March.
“Counties in our congressional districts have yet to receive any supplemental FMAP funding despite the dire financial circumstances they currently face,” they wrote. “This delay is unacceptable.”
Counties are not going to receive an FMAP payment from the state, an state budget official said. Instead, counties pay the state for their share of Medicaid expenses every year and this year, they will pay the state for a smaller portion of their spending.
Each county must pay the State’s Medicaid bill first, before funding any local program or service, including the costs of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, LaVigne said.
Both state and county governments have seen increased costs due to the pandemic along with drastic declines in tax revenue. Cuomo has repeatedly advocated for more federal aid to New York to help the state dig out.