(a) Upon approval by the centers for medicare and medicaid services of the assessment imposed by this part, the bureau shall reimburse each ambulance provider with qualifying ground ambulance service medicaid transports in an amount calculated by the bureau. This calculation must be determined by the bureau’s estimate of assessment collections and the resulting available program funding, less an annual amount of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) to offset medicaid administration expenses and an annual amount of eighty thousand dollars ($80,000) to offset administrative expenses for the Tennessee Ambulance Services Association. If less than these amounts is needed to offset the administrative expenses, the bureau shall only deduct the amount needed. The bureau’s estimate of assessment collections and the resulting program funding, netting out any amounts for offset administrative expenses, must be divided by the bureau’s projected number of medicaid transports. The resulting amounts are the additional payment amount made for each medicaid transport reported by the MCOs on a quarterly basis. This amount may change from quarter to quarter.(b) The bureau shall disburse directed payments to ambulance providers based on qualified medicaid transports from the base period as determined by the bureau and as authorized by the centers for medicare and medicaid services.
