Revised LHCSA Weekly HERDS Reporting Underway
(June 23, 2025) Last week, the Department of Health (DOH) rolled out a new Health Electronic Response Data System (HERDS) report, entitled COVID LHCSA effective 6 17 2025 HERDS. Moving forward, all Licensed Home Care Services Agencies (LHCSAs) will have to submit this weekly report by Thursday at 2 p.m. You may submit the report before Thursday and do not need to go in and update if the numbers have changed between the time you submitted the report and Thursday at 2 p.m. Rather, that change will be captured in the subsequent week’s submission. DOH encourages LHCSAs to try and submit the report on a similar day and time from week to week, if possible.
A new two-part question has been added to collect the provider’s patient census by county, per the LHCSA’s Department-issued license. You must select from a drop-down menu to choose the counties agencies are licensed to serve, and each one must be reported, even if the patient total is zero. The drop-down box does not auto-populate with each agency’s counties. Please check your Certificate of Need (CON) to be sure you are reporting for all counties listed on your license. DOH reports that some submitted the report last week without answering that question. You must complete that question; the submission is otherwise incomplete.
Please note: One significant change in the reporting is that Assisted Living Program (ALP) LHCSAs that only serve their residents will now have to complete this report. Going forward, all ALP LHCSAs are required to complete the LHCSA HERDS survey. Unfortunately, initial messaging that went out last week from DOH included old messaging suggesting that ALPs that have LHCSAs that serve only ALP residents would not have to complete the LHCSA survey. This was an error. ALL ALPs must complete the survey.
DOH held a short 30-minute training webinar to introduce the updated reporting requirement on June 10th. The recording is available here. If you have any questions, please write to hcstatrpts@health.ny.gov. Note that this change is not pertinent to Certified Home Health Agency (CHHA) and hospice HERDS reporting.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, or Diane Darbyshire, ddarbyshire@leadingageny.org. Both can be reached at 518-867-8383.