The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has released Program Assistance Letter (PAL) 2024-03, Calendar Year 2025 Requirements for Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) Coverage for Health Centers and Their Covered Individuals. This PAL is available via the Electronic Handbook (EHB) but, as of this writing, has yet to appear on the HRSA website (HRSA.gov). The EHB will open to receive CY 2025 deeming applications on April 19, 2024. Redeeming applications must be completed by June 24, 2024. Initial deeming applicants can be submitted at any time during the year that the EHB is open to receive them. HRSA advises initial deeming applicants to submit their applications at least two months prior to the desired date of coverage.

The basic FTCA deeming requirements for CY2025 have not changed, however, the application contains changes in the method certain requirements are reported.

• Required reporting of HIPAA, Infection Control, Obstetrics and specific areas of risk are separated into four distinct questions.
• Applicants will be required to use the “FTCA Training Tracking Form” which can be downloaded from the application, completed and then uploaded.
• The section on quarterly risk management assessments has been broken into four separate questions.
• All reports and assessments must be from the prior calendar year. The annual risk management report to the board must cover January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023. Quarterly risk management reports must cover the calendar year 2023.
• The credentialing and privileging section now clearly states that temporary privileges are not acceptable unless consistent with PAL 2017-07, Temporary Privileging of Clinical Providers by Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) Deemed Health Centers in Response to Certain Declared Emergency Situations.
• A new question is added to ensure health centers comply with the two-year credentialing and privileging requirement for all clinical providers.

If additional information is needed during the review of initial or redeeming applications, you will be notified via the EHB and have 10 business days to respond. If you fail to submit the information the application may be considered incomplete and voided. If voided, the applicant will have to submit a new initial deeming application.

During the course of the application review, HRSA may choose to conduct a site visit to confirm the implementation of FTCA requirements. Reasons for the site visit may be an initial application, non-compliance with requirements, prior site visit findings, a history of special conditions and/or a history of malpractice claims.

If HRSA determines that you have not demonstrated compliance with the deeming requirements you will receive a “compliance notice” via the EHB and be given an opportunity to demonstrate compliance. You will have 30 days in which to respond to the issues identified in the compliance notice.

As a final note, a deeming application is not considered approved until you receive a Notice of Deeming Action (NDA) from HRSA.

Keep Up to Date on FTCA Developments with Feldesman

• Our upcoming CY2025 Deeming Application series walks through the nuts and bolts of the application and discusses what the CY2025 FTCA Program will cover. Join us April 10 and 11, 2024.
• Take a deeper dive into claims, denials, gap insurance, and more at our upcoming FTCA Forum taking place April 30 – May 1, 2024, in Tempe, AZ. Our attorneys will address new and major FTCA stumbling blocks, requirements in the CY2025 application, and strategies for overall FTCA compliance. Learn more here.

Interested in your application being reviewed by our attorneys? Contact us for more information.

If you have any questions, please contact Martin Bree at mbree@feldesman.com or 202-466-8960.