HHS announced Monday that $523 million in October incentive payments will arrive in bank accounts on December 9 for 9,029 nursing homes that met or exceeded both infection and mortality criteria even though community spread has been on the rise.  In the State of Washington, 136 facilities will be receiving incentive payments totaling over $3.1 million for October.  September payments totaled over $1.9 million and went to 153 facilities.

You can view a PRF COVID-19 Quality Incentive Program Sept Oct of all nursing homes in Washington who will receive an October incentive payment along with the amounts they will receive.  This also lists the September payment that facilities should have received. HHS has provided the latest version of its Nursing Home Infection Control Quality Incentive Program Methodology document that it uses to determine these payments.

The October payments are substantially higher than the $331 million sent out to 10,415 nursing homes in September. A number of nursing homes missed out on a payment, not because of their infection control and mortality performance but instead due to issues with the data reported in NHSN that is used to calculate the incentives. In a recent LeadingAge article, we highlighted some of the issues that disqualified nursing homes from September incentive payments that may still be relevant for October and future incentive payments. 

HHS will distribute three more incentive payments as part of this program for performance periods in November, December and an aggregate performance period between August 31 – December 27.

Questions?

Contact:

David Carter | Director, Health Care Finance & Policy

C 360.888.5702