May 1st Marks First Nursing Home VAPAP Application Deadline for SFY 2023-24
The Department of Health (DOH) has posted quarterly deadlines for nursing homes in severe financial distress to apply for 2023-24 funding dedicated for that purpose. The Nursing Home Vital Access Provider Assurance Program (VAPAP) allows homes to apply for financial relief dollars to maintain operations and vital services while they implement longer-term solutions to achieve financial sustainability.
To be eligible to apply, a provider must be an Article 28 residential health care facility (RHCF) and have less than 20 days of cash as of Dec. 31, 2021 or have had a negative operating margin in the last two complete calendar years. (Note that when new application dates for State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2023-24 were added, the dates used for eligibility determination for SFY 2022-23 applications as well as the timeframe of financial information to be submitted were not updated. It is unclear whether that is intentional or an oversight. We are seeking clarification, and members may want to verify these requirements before compiling their application materials.)
Homes must submit annual financials as well as monthly financial data, and all applications must include the requested strategic initiatives plans and financial projections and key metrics that demonstrate a path to long-term sustainability and improved resident care and satisfaction.
Criteria that DOH takes into account when evaluating applications include:
- Quality of care, as reflected in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Star Ratings and Nursing Home Quality Incentive (NHQI) pool rankings;
- The extent to which the RHCF's application and transformation plan addresses community service needs;
- Alternative RHCF capacity, availability of other forms of long term care in the immediate region;
- Special services and populations served;
- Historical and projected financial sustainability; and
- Amount and length of assistance required compared to the number of beds at risk of loss.
This is the first of four quarterly application deadlines for SFY 2023-24, with DOH accepting applications on a rolling basis throughout the year. No awardee list of SFY 2022-23 applicants has been released, although several members have received funding. The application and full information are available on the dedicated DOH site here, and a previously published outline of the program is here.
Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841