DOH Provides Updates of Interest to ACF and Assisted Living Providers
LeadingAge NY has participated in various meetings with the Department of Health (DOH) over the past week. Below are some updates that may be of interest to adult care facility (ACF) and assisted living providers.
DOH staffing updates:
- Debra Rothman is now the Regional Office Director for the Metropolitan Area Regional Office (MARO).
- Kristen Pergolino is the new Director of the Division of Operations. In this new role, Kristen will be centralizing the complaints for the different service lines, as well as the Professional Medical Credentialing and Training. She will also be looking to streamline certain processes to help DOH "work smarter."
- Dr. Thomas Bathrick, who had been the Director of the Division of Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), has left DOH. Seon Davis is the current Acting Director.
Letters will be going out shortly regarding Enhancing the Quality of Adult Living (EQUAL) Program awards. LeadingAge NY will alert members when they are sent. Members are also reminded that last year's funds must be spent by mid-October, within a year of receipt.
The Department is unsure when the Person-Centered Care Plan webinar will be rescheduled. LeadingAge NY has been advocating to streamline the template to reduce duplicative documentation.
The Department is looking to make changes to the Drupal platform, where incident reports and medical equipment waivers are submitted, to improve functionality and address concerns reported.
The Department reported that they are planning to revamp processes to improve the turnaround time for various ACF and assisted living applications submitted via the NYS Electronic Certificate of Need (NYSE-CON) system. Unfortunately, the Department did not have any progress to report on the Assisted Living Program (ALP) CON process, which they must develop by 2025.
DOH will be hosting a Quality Assurance Process Improvement (QAPI) webinar provided by IPRO as the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) on Wed., Sept. 13th at 12 p.m. The program will outline the contents of a valuable quality assurance process to assist in quality sustainability and ongoing process improvements. We are told that the program will be recorded. Registration is required and available here.
Lastly, the Department noted seeing an increase in COVID activity across the state and encourages members to be vigilant and to ensure good communication.
LeadingAge NY meets with DOH on a regular basis. We encourage members to bring their questions and concerns to us so that we may address them in these conversations.
Contact: Diane Darbyshire, ddarbyshire@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8828