On March 14, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) will issue the first supplemental fee-for-service (FFS) payment related to the 2017-19 Hospital Fee Program. The payment will account for the approximate 6 percent shortfall that occurred with the FFS cycle 1 payment in February of 2018.
Historically, DHCS has issued FFS supplemental payments based on the accumulation of multiple FFS cycles. In an effort to expedite payments to hospitals, DHCS has agreed to begin issuing FFS supplemental payments on a quarterly basis for cycles where the initial supplemental payment did not account for 100 percent of the modeled amount.
For the March 14 payment, DHCS estimates the cycle 1 FFS supplemental payments will total approximately $59 million, totaling 100 percent of the modeled amount.