Progress on Universal Settlement

The State continues to make progress on the Universal Settlement of Nursing Home Appeals and Litigation and recently provided an update on their efforts.  

Department of Health (DOH) staff has completed a review of the facility-submitted lists of appeals and litigation to be excluded from the Settlement. There are still approximately 120 homes that have not submitted lists nor indicated to DOH that they have no exclusions. DOH has established a date of Wed., May 13 as the final deadline for list submission.   

Most LeadingAge NY members have responded to this request, but we urge any member that has not, to do so as soon as possible by e-mailing Richard J. Zahnleuter, director, Bureau of Litigation in the DOH Division of Legal Affairs at richard.zahnleuter@health.ny.gov. Information on excluded items is available here.              

DOH is preparing letters that will be sent to each nursing home identifying any of their exclusion requests that may have been rejected, and outlining how nursing homes can requests reconsideration. At the same time, the State has been working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on federal approval and is finalizing draft language of the agreement that homes will sign to execute the settlement. The draft will be circulated for review next week.    

Wed., May 13 is also the date by which members should provide DOH with a separate audit discontinuation list of OMIG audits that each facility believes should be discontinued because they pertain to matters included in the settlement. In addition, facilities with outstanding OMIG hearing requests related to matters that are excluded from the settlement should provide a list of such hearing requests to DOH to ensure that they are recognized as matters that may continue until adjudicated.

Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841