NAHMA USDA Update: 2023 Income Limits Published; Guidance MFH Program Processing of Insurance Claim Proceeds; Information about Health Coverage for Tenants
August 8, 2023
Dear NAHMA Members,
Please find three recent announcements from USDA-RD below:
- Published 2023 Income Limits for Rural Development’s Multi-Family Housing Programs
- RHS Announces Guidance for Multifamily Housing (MFH) Program Processing of Insurance Claim Proceeds
- Important Information about Health Coverage for Tenants in USDA Multifamily Housing Programs
Announcing 2023 Income Limits for Rural Development’s
Multi-Family Housing Programs
Effective July 13, 2023, USDA’s Office of Multifamily Housing published the 2023 Income Limits. Click the link to display the current Income Limits.
The publication includes updated income limits for the Section 538 Guaranteed Loan Program, which are 115% of the Area Median Income (AMI) for each County/Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and household size.
The 2023 Income Limits are available on the MFH Website under “Tool and Resources” and also on the Multifamily Housing Loan Guarantees website (at the bottom of the “Overview” tab).
If you have questions or need additional information, please contact Tammy Daniels, Finance and Loan Analyst in the Program Support Branch of the Production and Preservation Division at [email protected].
Multifamily Housing questions and/or comments may be directed to [email protected].
Rural Housing Service (RHS) Announces Guidance for Multifamily Housing (MFH) Program Processing
of Insurance Claim Proceeds
Rural Housing Service is pleased to announce guidance for processing insurance claim proceeds when the insurance company selects a contractor (sometimes referred to as a preferred contractor) to perform the mitigation or repairs. To alleviate redundancy and the administrative burden of processing insurance claim proceeds when the insurance company selects a contractor to perform the mitigation or repairs, the Agency will no longer require the minimum bids.
In instances where the insurance company selects a contractor to perform insurance proceed funded mitigation or repairs, the Agency agrees that the 2-bid reserve account requirement is not applicable.
In instances where the insurance company selects a contractor that has an Identity of Interest with the insurance company, owner or management agent, the Agency agrees that the 3-bid reserve account requirement is not applicable.
This guidance is based on the insurance industry standard that the selected (preferred) contractor will not charge more than what the insurance company will be, and therefore, the deductible is the only expense the property will incur.
This guidance does not apply to, or change the bid requirements for, reserve account requirements if the insurance company does NOT select the contractor on insurance claim mitigation or repairs. This guidance does NOT apply to reserve withdrawal requests that do not involve insurance claim proceeds.
In all cases that involve substantial or major rehabilitation, the selected (preferred) contractor must adhere to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
If you have questions regarding this guidance, you may contact the project’s assigned servicing specialist in the MFH Field Operations Division. The assigned specialist can be found on the Agency’s website at https://www.sc.egov.usda.gov/data/MFH.html by selecting the link under the heading Multifamily Housing 514 & 515 Property Assignments. The servicing specialist’s name is listed in the column “Assigned To” and the specialist’s email is in the column “Assigned To Email.”
Important Information about Health Coverage for Tenants in USDA Multifamily Housing Programs
USDA is encouraging Department-wide communication regarding health coverage for rural Americans. In partnership with you, our stakeholders, we are requesting your assistance in getting the word out on this important subject. To advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to ensure access to high-quality affordable health coverage, your efforts will help prevent tenants in Rural America from losing Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Coverage Program (CHIP) coverage because of the end of the COVID-19 Federal Public Health Emergency (PHE).
Medicaid is a health coverage assistance program for children, adults, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and seniors who qualify due to their income status or other criteria. CHIP provides health coverage to eligible children through Medicaid and separate CHIP programs.
Prior to the pandemic, states were required to renew coverage for people with Medicaid or CHIP coverage at least once a year, and to disenroll individuals who no longer qualified for coverage. In response to the outbreak of COVID-19, Congress took action to ensure millions of people did not lose access to critical health care, including preventing states from terminating a person’s Medicaid coverage, even if they were no longer qualified.
Now that the Federal PHE has ended, federal law requires states to restart regular Medicaid and CHIP renewals. This means that over the next 12 months, everyone with health care coverage through Medicaid or CHIP will need to renew their coverage.
We encourage you to support our collaborative efforts with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to help prevent eligible tenants from losing Medicaid or CHIP coverage. Here’s what you can do:
- Publicly post and distribute The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) News Release on flexibilities to minimize coverage losses among children and families, for your tenant’s awareness.
- Encourage tenants who may be enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP to take the following actions:
- UPDATE your contact information with your state Medicaid or CHIP agency.
- RESPOND to the Medicaid/CHIP renewal form when it arrives to keep your coverage.
- PARENTS should respond even if you don’t think you’re eligible – your children could still be eligible!
- CONSIDER OTHER COVERAGE OPTIONS: If you are no longer eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, check if you can get coverage through your employer, through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace at HealthCare.gov, or through Medicare.
- Partner with your state Medicaid agency to spread the word about renewals. You can find contact information on your state Medicaid agencies here.
- Utilize CMS’s Communications Toolkit (available in multiple languages, including English and Spanish) to execute the following:
- Remind tenants you interact with over the phone about renewing their Medicaid or CHIP coverage and to update their address with their state Medicaid agency. See CMS’s toolkit for sample call scripts.
- Launch a text messaging campaign to reach tenants who maybe on Medicaid or CHIP. See CMS's toolkit for sample text messages.
- Promote social media content and graphics from CMS’s toolkit on your social media platforms, incl. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
- Distribute flyers at community events to remind tenants to renew their health coverage. Check out the CMS website, Additional Materials and Resources section, for sample and fillable flyers to use.
- Check out CMS's "All Hand on Deck" Fact Sheet additional calls to action for partners to help keep children and families covered.
Together, we can make sure our communities have access to quality, affordable health coverage. You can play critical role in making this a reality by helping us make sure people stay covered. For state-specific questions, please have your tenants contact their state Medicaid offices.
Thank you for your partnership.
The USDA’s Multifamily Housing Program, Rural Development
|
