DOH Provides Resources Regarding New Requirements for SNALR Voucher Program

As was previously reported, the Department of Health (DOH) has made some changes to the Special Needs Assisted Living Residence (SNALR) Voucher Demonstration program. DOH is requiring, as of April 1, 2023, that SNALRs in receipt of Voucher payments submit their monthly rosters through a Health Commerce System (HCS) Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS) survey. This submission is required and must be completed by the first Monday of each month. Participating SNALRs are also required to notify the Department as soon as possible if and when a Voucher recipient exceeds the retention standards for a SNALR or leaves the residence for any reason at ALTCteam@health.ny.gov.

DOH held a webinar on March 31^st to demonstrate how to access the survey. Unfortunately, the Department was unable to provide a recording of that webinar; however, the PowerPoint can be accessed here, and step-by-step instructions on how to navigate the HERDS survey are provided below:

Go into the HCS.
Log in and put HERDS in the search bar at the top left.
Click on HERDS for Hospitals.
Go to Data Entry (on far left side of screen).
Under “Please Select Activity,” scroll through the dropdown box until you find SNALR Voucher Roster and click on it.
Under “Please Select Organization,” scroll through and click on your facility.
The rest should be fairly straightforward. FOR FIRST TIME USING THE HERDS SURVEY FACILITIES: Enter the names of each of your SNALR Voucher program enrollees, answer the questions about each, and at the end press Submit.
After the first month of entering your data in this manner, the following month will be automatically populated with the names of the residents you previously entered. You still need to press “Edit” and follow the prompts about how long the resident was in the facility or whether they have left.
For residents who leave in the current month: enter the information in the Edit mode so that there is a record of the details of their departure, and the following month, when their name comes up, use the Delete option.

Questions regarding the SNALR Voucher program or this new process should be sent to DOH at ALTCteam@health.ny.gov.

Contact: Diane Darbyshire, ddarbyshire@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8828