Nursing Home Census Rosters Due Jan. 10th
We remind nursing home members that Jan. 30, 2019 census rosters must be uploaded to the Health Commerce System (HCS) by Fri., Jan. 10th. This represents a two-week extension from the original Dec. 26th due date. Signed certifications should be scanned and submitted by email to primail@health.ny.gov by Jan. 14th. The Dear Administrator Letter (DAL) announcing the extension is here, and the original letter announcing the submission timelines is here.
Providers should verify that the Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessment matched to each resident on the roster is the correct one and inform the Department of Health (DOH) by email if discrepancies are identified. Although MDS assessments with assessment reference dates (ARDs) after Jan. 30, 2019 should only be used to match newly admitted residents, DOH reports that the system at times matches current residents (i.e., not newly admitted) with assessments outside of the appropriate ARD range. DOH intends to correct these, and we recommend that members notify DOH if they identify such mismatches.
Some members have reported that the system seems to have made some changes to appropriate matches after the roster was finalized. We recommend that members who may have finalized their submissions early in the process take a look to ensure that their finalized submission has not changed. If a roster becomes finalized but there are still corrections that need to be made, providers should let DOH know so that they can clear out the finalized status (but still save all the matched data). This will allow changes to be made without the need to re-upload.
When contacting DOH, please be sure to include your home’s operating certificate number and to use HCS secure transfer if sending resident information. Note that questions or correction requests can be sent to either primail@health.ny.gov or MDS_BRHCR@health.ny.gov (there is an underscore between MDS and BRHCR).
This submission will be the basis for the case mix index (CMI) that will be used to calculate new July 2019 rates. The July rates initially issued by the Department were subject to a State Supreme Court injunction that prompted the State to revert to the "picture date" methodology for establishing case mix that requires roster submissions. Once this collection cycle is complete, we anticipate that DOH will go through another collection cycle to gather the data needed to make CMI adjustments to January 2020 rates.
Please continue to let us know if you have pending corrections, as well as when they are resolved, so that we may continue to monitor the process.
Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841