NH Administrator rule amendments proposed

State law, as amended with the passage of SB 5708 in 2011, requires the Board of Nursing Home Administrators (Dept. of Health) to adopt rules which would allow a nursing home administrator, when the nursing home has converted some of its licensed nursing facility bed capacity for use as assisted living or enhanced assisted living services (Medicaid contracts), to ALSO serve as a boarding home administrator for those beds.


At its October 28, 2011 meeting, the Board adopted a draft rule proposal and the formal rulemaking process will continue.  The agreed-upon draft language specifies that 1) an administrator must be on site a minimum 4 days and 20 hours per week at facilities with 1-30 nursing home beds and 2) 4 days and 30 hours per week at facilities with 31-49 nursing home beds.  The important note here is that there is no specified bed count for assisted living units that the nursing home administrator can also manage.

This law is designed to help, especially, those rural nursing home providers that also desire to fulfill a need for assisted living services in their community while remaining a financially viable nursing home.  A sincere thanks to Keith Fauerso, Cheney Care Center, for his service on the State's Board of Nursing Home Administrators and championing the cause of nursing homes.