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Are You Ready for the 2014 UFR?

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Chapter 257 of the Acts of 2008 placed the authority for determining human and social service reimbursement rates with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS). The Uniform Financial Report (UFR) is a key source for the financial data used in this analysis.
In 2013, the UFR Preparation Manual instructions listed the activity codes (MMARS codes) that are associated with Chapter 257 and required that they not be merged or commingled with any other activity code.  Given this instruction, and additional general UFR instructions that require you to separate different types of rates and services, further break down of the UFR programs will be needed in 2014.  For example, a residential contract (whose Chapter 257 rate became effective April 1, 2014) may now include a service rate and an occupancy rate. The service rate is a non-negotiated rate but the occupancy rate is negotiated. As a result, this residential program will require three separate Schedule Bs:

  • the 1st covers the single rate program from July 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014
  • the second covers the service rate from April 1, 2014 to June 30, 2014
  • the third covers the occupancy rate from April 1, 2014 to June 30, 2014

Also there may be other areas where further breakdown is needed. For example, you may have a program where individuals are supported by multiple agencies and contracts. These services will need to be reported separately even if they are part of the same service for the individual.
There may be some additional supplemental schedules added(similar to the mental health class rate schedule) related to the Chapter 257 rates designed to capture even more details. At this time, these details have not been finalized but are being discussed.
Now is the time to review your contracts to be sure you have captured all of those that have shifted to Chapter 257 and make sure your general ledger contains sufficient information to capture financial data in the detail that is needed to prepare the UFR given these new rates. If it does not,consider breaking it down further or, at a minimum, creating supplemental spreadsheets to gather the necessary data.
The UFR template and instructions are expected to be released at the end of June.  AAF will be hosting an educational webinar in August to review these changes and discuss other recommendations. Stay tuned for more information!
For more information, please contact your AAF Partner, or Robin Kelley, AAF Partner, at 774.512.4011 or rkelley@nullaafcpa.com.