CHHA RFA Update

At the Jan. 30, 2014 Public Health and Health Planning Council (PHHPC) Committee on Establishment and Project Review the last  applications for becoming a CHHA were reviewed. DOH first provided an overview of the CHHA Request for Application (RFA) process that began in January 2012. As of result of the RFA, 137 applications were received, 10 applications did not submit a Certificate of Need (CON) application and 55 applications were acted upon by DOH. Out of the 55 applications, 17 were for establishment which included four new CHHAs, four Special Needs CHHAs converted to a general purpose CHHA, 22 general purpose CHHAs requested to expand their geographic service area, 10 Long Term Home Health Care Programs (LTHHCPs) incorporated a CHHA into their business line and two LTHHCPs converted to a CHHA. DOH was clear that they intended the CHHA application process to be completed as of Jan. 30, 2014. The remaining CHHA applicants will be notified by DOH that they have not been recommended for approval. It was stated several times during this process that the CON methodology needs to be updated. One PHHPC member summarized the last two year process as more than doubling the amount of CHHAs downstate, increasing the number of CHHAs upstate but still having four counties in which there are still just one CHHA.

The Establishment and Project Review committee approved several CHHAs that were being purchased which is outside of the scope of the RFA. Those that were brought forward included expanding to another county, converting a Special Needs CHHA to a general purpose CHHA and expanding into another county. Another applicant asked to have their application removed from the agenda; and one application was deferred.

Contact: Cheryl Udell, cudell@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871