Skilled Nursing Facility Reporting Exceptions

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is granting exceptions under certain Medicare quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs located in areas affected by Hurricane Ida to assist providers while they direct resources toward caring for patients and repairing structural damages to facilities. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has declared Public Health Emergencies (PHE) for New York, New Jersey, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Based on the impact of Hurricane Ida, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has designated Bronx, Kings, Nassau, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, and Westchester as affected counties. This exception applies to Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quarter 3 2021 Quality Reporting Program (QRP) reporting requirements, including the reporting of data on measures and any other data requested by CMS for the post-acute care (PAC) quality reporting programs.

SNF providers located outside of the previously mentioned counties are not granted QRP reporting exceptions, but they may request an exception to the reporting requirements under one or more Medicare quality reporting or value-based purchasing programs they participate in using the applicable Extraordinary Circumstances Exceptions (ECE) procedure for the respective program(s). In addition, providers located within a county listed in the FEMA disaster declaration who seek an exception for a reporting requirement not covered may request an individual exception using the applicable ECE procedure for the respective program(s). CMS will assess each ECE request on a case-by-case basis. To make a SNF QRP ECE request, please contact SNFQRPReconsiderations@cms.hhs.gov. SNF Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) ECE requests should be sent to SNFVBP@rti.org.

When determining whether to report data included in the allowable exceptions, providers should be aware that data may be publicly reported or used in scoring.

Contact: Ken Allison, kallison@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8820