The Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) on February 4th issued an update to nursing facilities regarding the 2019 Nursing Facility Cost Report submission. As noted previously, CHIA, as part of the second stage of its Cost Modernization Project to make the forms more accessible to policy makers, providers and consumers, will be implementing the new electronic nursing facility Realty Company Cost Report, now called the REA-CR. CHIA has reformatted the nursing facility Realty Company Cost Report, formerly known as HCF-2, for the 2019 cost report submission. The REA-CR is expected to be available for completing your 2019 Realty Company Cost Reports in Spring 2020. In addition, in preparation for completing the new REA-CR form, CHIA’s update also identifies the User Agreement and Information forms that must be completed by nursing homes, realty companies, preparers and certifiers and emailed to CHIAcostreports.LTCF@state.ma.us no later than February 25, 2020.
CHIA will be hosting a webinar to provide training and information on the new REA-CR following its release on CHIA Submissions in Spring 2020.
And, CHIA is in the process of preparing the HCF-1 and MGT-CR cost reports for 2019 reporting and will notify facilities when these costs reports will be available along with filing deadlines. In order to minimize the impact on providers during this transition, there will likely be some reduced reporting requirements for HCF-1 filers that also must file a realty company cost report.
If you have any questions about the new REA-CR, please call CHIA's Cost Report Help Desk at (617) 701-8297 or email CHIAcostreports.LTCF@state.ma.us.