N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 10, § 86-2.20 – Interest expense for all residential health care facilities.

(a) Necessary interest on both current and capital indebtedness is an allowable cost for all residential health care facilities.
(b) To be considered as an allowable cost, debt generating interest shall be incurred to satisfy a financial need, and interest expense shall be at a rate not in excess of what a prudent borrower would have had to pay in the money market at the time the loan was made. Also, the interest shall be paid to a lender not related through control, ownership, affiliation or personal relationship to the borrower, except in instances where the prior approval of the Commissioner of Health has been obtained. Financial need for capital indebtedness relating to a specific project shall exist when all available restricted funds designated for capital acquisition of that type have been considered for equity purposes.
1. (1) Interest expense shall be reduced by investment income with the exception of income from funded depreciation, qualified pension funds, trusteed malpractice insurance funds, or in instances where income from gifts or grants is restricted by donors. Interest on funds borrowed from a donor-restricted fund or funded depreciation is an allowable expense. Investment incomeshall be defined as the aggregate net amount realized from dividends, interest, rental income, interest earned on temporary investment of withholding taxes, as well as all gains and losses. If the aggregate net amount realized is a loss, the loss is not allowable.
2. (2) For rate years beginning prior to January 1, 1994, investment income reported for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1983, (or for a subsequent fiscal year if that subsequent year's report is being used by the department to establish the basic rate pursuant to section 86-2.10 of this Subpart) shall reduce the interest expense allowed for reimbursement as follows:
  1. (i) for all residential health care facilities, investment income shall first reduce the interest expense allowed each year for operational cost reimbursement; and
  2. (ii) the amount of any remaining investment income, after application of subparagraph (i) of this paragraph, shall reduce the interest expense reimbursed each year as capital cost for residential health care facilities; and
  3. (iii) the amount of any remaining investment income after application of subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph, shall not be considered in the computation of the rate.
3. (3) For rate years beginning on or after January 1, 1994, for all residential health care facilities, investment income reported for the same year used to compute capital cost reimbursement for a facility's rate shall reduce the interest expense allowed for reimbursement.
  (d)
4. (1) Interest on current indebtedness shall be treated and reported as an operating, administrative expense for rate years beginning prior to January 1, 1994. For rate years beginning on or after January 1, 1994, interest on current indebtedness, reported for the same cost report period used to compute capital cost reimbursement for a facility's rate, shall be reported as an administrative expense and reimbursed as a nontrendable expense.
  1. (i) Approval by the commissioner shall be required for reimbursement of interest expense on current indebtedness incurred on or after January 1, 1994 when such interest expense exceeds the threshold established for that calendar year. The threshold for each calendar year shall be equal to the interest charges that would be generated by current indebtedness with an interest rate equal to the prime lending rate as published in the first issue of the Wall Street Journal for the calendar year plus 200 basis points on a loan principal of $270,000 for facilities with 120 or less beds or $270,000 plus an additional $2,250 for each bed over 120 for facilities with more than 120 beds. Approval shall be granted in accordance with the standards set forth in subdivision (b) of this section. Prior approval shall not be required.
  2. (ii) New facilities without adequate cost experience whose rates are calculated pursuant to section 86-2.15 of this Subpart shall be exempt from the requirements in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph until January 1st of the first calendar year used as the basis for computing capital cost reimbursement and for which a cost report is filed subsequent to the cost report described in section 86-2.2(e) of this Subpart. This exemption shall not apply to operating facilities that open new discrete units providing services reimbursed in accordance with the provisions of paragraphs (5), (6) and/or (7) of section 86-2.15(b) of this Subpart or other similar discrete units providing care to residents with special needs that receive a separate and distinct payment rate under section 86-2.15 of this Subpart.
  3. (iii) The interest expense threshold for facilities operated by receivers or new operators who are required to file a cost report for the first 12-month period of operation pursuant to section 86-2.10(k) of this Subpart shall be established for that cost report period in accordance with subparagraph (i) of this paragraph, using the prime lending rate in effect on January 1st of the year in which the cost report period begins.
  (2)
(c)
(e) Interest on capital indebtedness, as defined in section 86-2.21(a)(1) of this Subpart, except as provided for in subdivision (c) of this section for rate year beginning January 1, 1986 and thereafter. is an allowable cost if the debt generating the interest is approved by the commissioner, incurred for authorized purposes, and the principal of the debt does not exceed either the approval of the commissioner or the cost of the authorized purposes. Interest related to refinancing indebtedness shall be considered an allowable cost only to the extent that it is payable with respect to an amount equal to the unpaid principal of the indebtedness then being refinanced. However, interest incurred on refinanced debt in excess of the previously unpaid balance of the refinanced indebtedness will be allowable on acceptable demonstration to the Commissioner of Health that such refinancing will result in a debt service savings over the life of the indebtedness.
(f) Where a public finance authority has established a mortgage rate of interest such that sufficient cash flows exist to retire the mortgage prior to the stated maturity, the amount of the mortgage to be forgiven, at the time of such forgiveness, shall be capitalized as a deferred asset and amortized over the remaining mortgage life, as a reduction to the facility's capital expense.
(g) Voluntary facilities shall report mortgage obligations financed by public finance authorities for their benefit and which they are responsible to repay, as liabilities in the general fund when such mortgage obligations are incurred.