CAPITAL REGION — A just-negotiated settlement will bring an additional $450 million in federal Medicare money to counties across the state that run nursing homes, an official of the state Association of Counties said Wednesday.

The one-time payment for under-reimbursements to the nursing homes in 2006, 2007 and 2008 will net Saratoga County $5.5 million, and mean similar cash for the county-run nursing homes in Schenectady and Albany counties.

“It’s good news, even though it’s one-time additional funding,” said Ken Crannell, legislative director of the state Association of Counties.

Crannell publicly discussed the settlement for the first time at a meeting with Saratoga County officials in Ballston Spa.

Public nursing homes like the county’s 277-bed Maplewood Manor currently lose millions of dollars annually because reimbursements for Medicaid patients so badly lag behind the actual cost of providing care.

This year, Saratoga will be covering a $6 million deficit at Maplewood Manor, and Schenectady covering a $7 million deficit at the Glendale Home in Glenville.

The settlement will help with such deficits but not eliminate them or the underlying factors behind them.

“It’s available federal dollars that come at a very good time in terms of preparing your budgets,” Crannell said.

To get the settlement, NYSAC argued the counties were under-reimbursed because Medicare rather Medicaid payment rates were used in many patient cases. Federal officials agreed to pay an additional $450 million statewide.

But to get the $450 million, the counties must put up some local money.

In Saratoga’s case, the county would need to put up $5.5 million to receive $11 million back from the federal government. The money must be spent within the county nursing home budget.

Crannell said he didn’t have the comparable reimbursement figures for Schenectady and Albany counties.

Counties have the option of taking all the money as soon as November if they have the resources to put up the local share, or NYSAC negotiated for poorer counties to spread the reimbursement over up to four years, Crannell said.

A major meeting in Albany next week will explore the complex settlement to county leaders across the state, he said.

Saratoga, as one of the state’s most economically successful counties, probably has the resources to pony up the local share almost immediately.

“The [Board of Supervisors] will have some decisions to make,” said Spencer Hellwig, the county’s management analyst. “Theoretically, you could draw it all down in November, based on the subsidy.”

County Treasurer Sam Pitcheralle said he would favor taking the money as soon as possible.

The settlement will also mean the higher Medicare rates being used for many patient reimbursements going into the future, meaning a permanent increase in revenues. “It will be much less than this retroactive payment,” Crannell said.

Hellwig said the news has to be understood within a larger context that county officials are still very concerned about further cuts in state revenues for public nursing homes going into 2009.