The Cost of Care Plus Rate was introduced in CCB 23-25 and recently updated in CCB 23-37 where beginning January 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, all providers will receive a monthly per child "Cost of Care Plus Rate" based on the region that they live in and their licensing status. 

This article will discuss how to implement this change in CC4 for the 18 months period beginning on January 1, 2024 for service month December 2023 and ending on June 2025 for service month May 2025. 

Adding Cost of Care Plus Rates

The first step to implement this Cost Plus Rate is to add each of the Cost Plus Rates per region and provider type. This will only need to be done once by a user that has the admin role:

1. Navigate to the Admin Module

2. Search Other Program

3. Click Add

From here, you are now going to enter:

1. Name - Both the Region and Provider Type for your COCP Rate

2. Code - A single string of letters and numbers that the system uses

3. Amount Type - select Set Amount

4. Amount - Enter the amount corresponding to your region and provider

5. Start Month - December 2023

6. End Month - May 2025

Continue this for all COCP rates that are relevant to the area you serve. The Entries will be as follows:

Adding Cost of Care Plus Rates to a Payment

The second step to implement this Cost Plus Rate is during the claims processing.

Within the claim details, proceed with your child care payment calculation as normal. When ready to apply the Cost Plus Rate, you will need to be aware of two pieces of information:

1. Provider Type - This can be found on the claim under the Provider Section of the top banner.

2. Provider Region - This can be found by using the Provider Hyperlink to access the provider record to view the county information under Provider Info
   
   

   

   

After you have determined the correct Region and Provider type. Calculate the Payment as normal. Once this is completed, navigate to the Other Amount section of the payment.

From here, press the Pencil Icon to begin entering a new COCP Rate.

After selecting the correct COCP Rate, the system will populate the amount information, as well as the total combined amount of the original payment and Cost of Care Plus payment.

From this point, the Payment Specialist can now Commit the payment into the authorized status, where it can be exported as normal, after Export File Modification. Please contact MCT Technology Support Staff through your normal means of communication for assistance in Export File Modifications. Modifications will need to be made to display the correct Cost of Care Plus amount in your Payment Export File.

Reporting Included in Cost of Care Plus Update

We have included two new reports to track the inclusion of the Cost of Care Plus Payment, which will work side by side in assuring that Cost of Care Plus is applied to every payment.

1. Payment with Other Amount: Used to track which payments have had the other amount applied.
2. Payment without Other Amount: Used to track which payments have not had COCP applied.

Before export, always check the Payment without Other Amount, to assure that COCP have been applied correctly. In the event that COCP has not been applied before export, an adjustment will need to be created to add this COCP directly to the payment.