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Q&A
Food reimbursement rates and funding for meal programs
1:23:22
·
5 min
Council Member Hudson discusses food reimbursement rates and funding for meal programs with NYC Aging officials. Key points include:
- The council previously called for increasing home-delivered meal reimbursement rates to $15.31 per meal
- $4.8 million was added in baseline funding to increase rates to $13.78 per meal
- A decrease in home-delivered meals and clients served was noted in the first four months of FY2025
- The decrease was attributed to state-imposed restrictions on serving Medicaid-eligible individuals, which has since been addressed
- NYC Aging has not submitted additional funding requests for increasing per-meal costs at this time.
- The agency is working to restore services to Medicaid-eligible individuals, which should increase meal numbers.
- NYC Aging typically reimburses providers within 7-10 days for properly submitted invoices.
Crystal Hudson
1:23:22
I'm gonna move on to food reimbursement rates and funding.
Jose Mercado
1:23:29
Give me one second here.
Crystal Hudson
1:23:37
In our fiscal twenty twenty five preliminary budget response, the council called on the administration to add and baseline $12,700,000 for the home delivered meals program to bring the per meal reimbursement rate up to $15.31 from $12.78.
1:23:54
At adoption last June, '4 point '8 million dollars was added in baseline starting in fiscal twenty twenty five to increase reimbursement rates for home delivered meals to 13.78 a meal, partially addressing the council's proposal.
1:24:07
The PMMR indicates that home delivered meal providers served 1,400,000 meals to nineteen fourteen homebound older adults in the first four months of fiscal twenty twenty five.
1:24:20
This is 6.1% fewer meals and 8.5 fewer clients when compared to the same period in fiscal twenty twenty four.
1:24:28
Is NYC aging considering a further increase to meal reimbursement rates this budget cycle?
1:24:33
And if so, to by how much and for what period?
1:24:37
By how much and for what period?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:24:47
You wanna say that?
1:24:49
At this point we have not submitted additional funding for the per meal cost of home delivered meals.
1:25:00
And although we are in conversation with OMB about older adult club meals, that cost per meal has not gone up.
Crystal Hudson
1:25:09
Okay.
1:25:10
How has the rollout of the new reimbursement rate been?
1:25:13
And has NYC aging received feedback from providers?
1:25:16
If so, what type of feedback?
Jose Mercado
1:25:19
We're talking about it's still $726,780 correct?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:25:24
Yeah.
1:25:25
Yes.
Jose Mercado
1:25:25
So what we normally do is we do an assessment within every quarter to determine costs.
1:25:31
We have not done that yet, so we're planning to do so.
Crystal Hudson
1:25:38
Okay.
1:25:40
What you said you okay.
1:25:42
Why have we seen a decrease in the number of meals and clients served in the first four months of fiscal twenty twenty five?
1:25:48
Does NYC Aging believe further investment in the home delivered meals program would address the decline in meals served by the program and staffing deficits at providers?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:26:03
You know when it's not seasonal because that's always seasonal.
1:26:12
A decrease in home delivered meals.
1:26:14
No, it's a decrease in first quarter.
1:26:15
In the first quarter.
1:26:27
I'm sorry, I had a brain fog.
1:26:30
This goes back to an issue.
1:26:34
Thank you for that, Ryan.
1:26:37
This goes back to an issue that we raised with you previously where the state imposed on us that we could not deliver home delivered meals to people who were on Medicaid.
1:26:49
Right.
1:26:50
We disagreed with them but we had a period in which we could not serve people.
1:26:56
When we saw the number increasing to about 3,000 we went back to the state and we said this happened last time.
1:27:04
We had a grandfather in 14464.
1:27:07
This practice cannot continue.
1:27:09
There is no way of indicating if all of these people who are Medicaid eligible are getting a meal.
1:27:16
So we restored.
1:27:18
We're in the process of restoring those.
1:27:20
But that is where you see that decline.
Crystal Hudson
1:27:21
That decline.
1:27:22
Okay.
1:27:22
Yeah.
1:27:22
That makes sense.
1:27:23
Does NYC Okay, so are you advocating for increased funding or you're staying or not because you think you're going to get those numbers back up?
1:27:37
Believe that
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:27:38
we can get those numbers back up.
Crystal Hudson
1:27:41
How many meals is in market?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:27:42
And also we are no longer cutting taking people.
1:27:47
We've never anyone who came to NYC Aging who wanted a home delivered meals, that was one of the things we did.
1:27:53
That was even with the partial assessment you still got a meal.
1:27:58
That was not the case when the state imposed this.
1:28:00
That has changed and we got some guidance from them that it'll that they're not disputing our findings.
Crystal Hudson
1:28:12
Okay.
1:28:13
That's good news.
1:28:15
How many meals is NYC aging reimbursed so far in fiscal twenty twenty five?
Jose Mercado
1:28:22
So the number I'm quoting, it's strictly for the HDM.
1:28:25
It's 2,100,000.
Crystal Hudson
1:28:27
Two point one million?
Jose Mercado
1:28:28
Yeah.
1:28:28
We're having a little we'll get back to you in the OEC.
1:28:32
Due to a conversion of the new system, we've been having difficulty Between
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:28:35
the dates between passport
Linda Lee
1:28:37
Okay.
Jose Mercado
1:28:37
So the OEC number is a little difficult because it's actually we're doing everything manually unfortunately.
1:28:42
It's easier to do 15 contracts instead of 116 contracts.
1:28:45
Okay.
1:28:45
So we'll get back to you on the OEC ones.
Crystal Hudson
1:28:47
And then how many meals are pending reimbursement?
Jose Mercado
1:28:50
Right now zero.
1:28:51
Because actually all invoices we just got new invoices in so they're under review.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:28:56
And just for the record, we reimburse within seven to ten days.
Crystal Hudson
1:29:00
I know you're one of the best If
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:29:03
don't if the invoice is a good invoice, there's no data missing.
1:29:07
Yeah.
1:29:08
Thank you for that.
Crystal Hudson
1:29:08
Yeah.
1:29:09
That's great.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:29:10
Thank you for Jose.