On July 13, 2017, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services filed an amendment to 900 KAR 5:020, State Health Plan for facilities and services that will significantly change the Certificate of Need criteria. Please see amended regulation here. The amended regulation revises the State Health Plan Certificate of Need "(CON") criteria for Medicare certified nursing home short-term rehabilitation beds. See amended State Health Plan language here.

The State Health Plan is amended to add the following language: "Nursing home beds for the provision of post-acute rehabilitation services shall not be included in the [need] calculation." Additionally, "an application to establish nursing home beds for the provision of post-acute rehabilitation services shall be consistent with this Plan if the proposed annual average length of stay of the nursing home beds does not exceed twenty-one (21) days."

The changes to the regulation and State Health Plan will allow for the addition of new Medicare-certified short-term rehabilitation beds through new construction or otherwise. CON applications for short-term rehabilitation nursing home beds will be assumed to be consistent with the state health plan and, therefore, will not have to meet all the criteria currently required to obtain a CON in Kentucky. The change impacts all our members currently offering short-term rehabilitation services in their communities.

KAHCF urges ALL members to send written comments which must be received by the Cabinet on or before August 31, 2017 to:

Tricia Orme
Administrative Specialist
Office of Legal Services
 275 East Main Street 5W-B
Frankfort, Kentucky 40621

Or
By email to Tricia.Orme@ky.gov

Please state in your comments that [insert name and/or facility name] strongly opposes the amendment to 900 KAR 5:020 and that there is not a need for additional short-term rehabilitation services in Kentucky. Current Kentucky licensed nursing facilities and nursing homes are providing high quality short-term rehabilitation services in their communities.

For additional questions, please contact
Janet Justice, Sr. Director Regulatory Affairs at jjustice@kahcf.org
Wayne Johnson, VP Finance at wjohnson@kahcf.org
Bruce Linder, Executive VP at blinder@kahcf.org
Betsy Johnson, President at bjohnson@kahcf.org