Hospital-Based Nursing Homes: Please Complete DOH Survey by May 10th
The Department of Health (DOH) is working toward releasing the federal share of nursing home safe staffing funding. Eligibility for this funding is predicated on homes meeting minimum spending thresholds based on 2020 data. Whether a facility met the threshold was determined using the Residential Health Care Facility (RHCF)-4 cost report for free-standing homes. Hospital-based homes that file the RHCF-2 cost report were required to submit financial data to DOH. While hospital-based homes submitted 2020 financial data to DOH in early 2023 (which was the basis of eligibility for the State share distribution), DOH circulated a Dear Administrator Letter (DAL) on May 3rd requesting some additional data in order to distribute the federal share.
The additional information DOH is requesting is:
- the 2020 operating revenue for each hospital-based home; and
- the 2020 total expenses (i.e., operating and non-operating expenses) for each hospital-based home.
This information will allow DOH to verify that homes are not exceeding the 5 percent profit margin test – specifically, that nursing home total operating revenue does not exceed total operating and non-operating expenses by more than 5 percent of total operating and non-operating expenses.
Please note that the survey must be completed as a Health Electronic Response Data System (HERDS) survey on the Health Commerce System (HCS). It can be accessed by logging onto the HCS, clicking on My Applications, then HERDS, then Data Entry. For Activity, select NH Supplemental Funding Elig Federal Shr.
The Operator of the nursing home, or an executive officer with the authority to certify on behalf of the facility and Operator, must review the data, complete the certification statement, and submit the completed survey. This must be done no later than 4 p.m. on May 10, 2024, in order to receive funding. Questions can be submitted to NHSafeStaffing@health.ny.gov.
DOH is hoping to distribute the federal share of safe staffing funding to both hospital-based and free-standing homes in June.
Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841