Nursing Home MDS Review Must Be Completed by Friday
The Department of Health (DOH) has provided an additional week for nursing home providers to review the Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessment data that will be used in calculating the Case Mix Index (CMI) in January 2022 Medicaid rates. Nursing homes have until March 25th to review the data and update payer, specialty bed, or special population (dementia, bariatric, traumatic brain injury (TBI)) identifiers in effect on the Assessment Reference Date (ARD) of the MDS.
DOH calculates CMI using all of the MDS assessments with an ARD from April 1, 2021 through Sept. 30, 2021, regardless of whether the individual is still a resident or has been discharged. All MDS assessments within the catchment period with Medicaid as the payer are used as long as they provide sufficient information to generate a Resource Utilization Group (RUG) score. The weights of the RUG scores for all assessments utilized are averaged to arrive at a facility’s CMI.
The final step of the review process is the electronic submission of the MDS Certification, which must be received by DOH no later than April 1st. The text of the updated Dear Administrator Letter (DAL) reflecting the extension is available here, and the Certification form is here. Please note that DOH stresses that the signed and notarized Certification is due seven days after the provider verifies the MDS data, but no later than April 1, 2022. It must be submitted electronically and can be emailed to MDSBRHCR@health.ny.gov.
If you encounter difficulties or have questions, please let us know and/or contact DOH at MDSBRHCR@health.ny.gov as quickly as possible to allow any issues to be resolved by the due date.
Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841