Effective April 18, 2017, the Department of Health has issued emergency regulations setting forth the payment methodology by which it will distribute funds from the New York State Nursing Home Quality Pool (NHQP).

  

The NHQP is a $50 million budget-neutral pool that was established in the 2010-2011 State budget created to improve quality of care for residents and to reward Medicaid-certified facilities for quality based on their performance. Under the payment methodology of the 2013 NHQP, eligible nursing homes contribute to the funding of the $50 million pool, and the pool money is redistributed to the nursing homes based on their performance in the NHQP.

  

The 2013 NHQP contains three measurement components comprised of 14 quality measures, three compliance measures, and one efficiency measure (for list, see attached) by which the nursing homes will be assessed on their performance as compared to their peers. Nursing homes are categorized into 5 quintiles based on the distribution of their overall scores. The pool money will be distributed to the nursing homes depending on their quintile placement. Facilities in the 1 ^st quintile will receive a larger proportional amount than the 2 ^nd and 3 ^rd quartiles and those in the 4 ^th and 5 ^th quintiles will not receive any distribution.

  

The new regulations are designed to reward New York State residential health care facilities with the highest quality outcomes as determined by the stated methodology.

  

For more information on the NHQP, please contact Patrick Formato, Esq. or Barbara Stegun Phair, Esq. or any Abrams Fensterman healthcare attorney at (516) 328-2300.