ME LD2177

Nursing facility reimbursement will be rebased effective January 1, 2028, with subsequent rebasing occurring under the updated section 3173-J rate-setting framework, subject to appropriation

Removes detailed nursing home reimbursement rules from section 1708 (including occupancy adjustments, regional inflation factors, and biennial rebasing requirements) and consolidates rate-setting authority under section 3173-J

Adds new definitions for "payment model" and "reimbursement methodology" to clarify how the Department of Health and Human Services determines provider payments, including fee-for-service, per-member-per-month, and cost-settled approaches

Streamlines rulemaking requirements so that changes to billing codes or rate adjustments from applying existing methodologies do not require new rulemaking if the overall payment model and methodology remain unchanged

Reduces required meetings of the MaineCare Rate Reform Expert Technical Advisory Panel from twice per year to once per year, and changes the centralized rate index requirements from mandatory to permissive ("must" to "may")