Situation Report | October 4, 2021
Last week, the state Department of Health (DOH) issued a HERDS Survey to Licensed Home Care Services Agencies (LHCSAs) to identify counties with public need for additional LHCSAs.
The Survey is due by close of business on Friday, October 15, 2021.
The Survey is available on the Health Commerce System (HCS).
A sample of the Survey is available here.
It is important that every LHCSA site submit the count of all unduplicated patients served between April 1, 2020 and April 1, 2021 and the number of patients on its roster as of April 1, 2021 in each county. This data will be used to determine whether new general purpose LHCSAs can be established in these counties.
Background
The moratorium on the processing and approval of licensure applications for LHCSAs expired on March 31, 2020. The Department’s regulations related to the new LHCSA public need methodology and financial feasibility review are effective as of April 1, 2020. The two-year moratorium and the new application review standards were enacted as part of 2018 state budget.
The new regulations pertaining to the LHCSA public need methodology state that there shall be a rebuttable presumption of no need for additional LHCSAs in a planning area if there are 5 or more LHCSAs actively serving patients within the planning area as of April 1, 2020.
However, the regulations also allow that, beginning in 2021, the commissioner shall have the authority to adjust the target date for determining need for additional LHCSAs in a planning area, in subsequent years.
Since there have been changes in the number of providers during the past year, the Department is issuing another HERDS survey to identify the number of LHCSAs actively serving patients in each county in 2021 to update the public need numbers.
Questions should be sent to HCStatRpts@health.ny.gov.