Statutory Changes to New York Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) of 2000

June 20, 2003

Dear Payor:

Re: New York State Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) of 2000

The purpose of this letter is to inform you, as a former direct payor to the Public Goods Pool, of a major statutory change recently made to the New York State Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) of 2000 as part of the enacted 2003-2004 State Fiscal Year Budget.

A new amnesty provision has been enacted which waives statutorily required interest and penalty if delinquent obligations due to pools established under the New York Prospective Hospital Reimbursement Methodology or HCRA for periods prior to January 1, 2003, are paid in full, and accompanied by the appropriate reports, on or before December 31, 2003. This amnesty provision does not apply to any interest and penalty amount which has been collected previously by the Department or for delinquencies which are discovered during the course of an audit conducted by the Department or it´s designee.

Although we encourage that all delinquent payments be submitted with appropriately completed reports, the new statutory provisions also allows payors to file these delinquent payments with partially completed reports as long as there is sufficient information available to the Department to identify the submitting payor, the electing organization, and nature of payments. Payors who file partial reports pursuant to this provision will however, be required to file properly completed reports for applicable delinquency periods within thirty days of the Department´s receipt of such delinquent payments.

If you have an outstanding liability to the pools for the period you were a direct payor, you may want to take advantage of the amnesty provision.

For additional information, please refer to the Department´s website at: http://www.health.state.ny.us/regulations/hcra/index.htm

Questions may also be directed to:

Mr. Richard Pellegrini, Director
Bureau of Financial Management and Information Support
Room 984, Corning Tower
Albany, New York 12237-0719
(518) 473-4653

Sincerely,

Mark H. Van Guysling
Assistant Director
Division of Health Care Financing

Enclosures