On September 1, 2020, the New York State Department of Health issued a Dear Administrator Letter (DAL) to the State’s Nursing Homes to remind providers of the recently established regulatory requirements for personal protective equipment (PPE) stockpiles. The regulations, enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, require facilities to “possess and maintain” a supply of PPE equal to the average daily rate of PPE the facility used between April 19 and April 27, 2020. By August 31, 2020, facilities were expected to have at least a 30-day supply of PPE, with stockpiles growing to at least a 60-day supply by September 30, 2020.
Facilities unable to comply with this deadline are able to request a 30-day extension, until October 30, 2020. Eligible facilities must demonstrate that the inability to meet the deadline is (a) directly attributable to supply chain and pricing issues; or (b) the seven-day rolling average of new COVID infections in New York State remains below 1.5% and there are no more than ten states in the United States that have seven-day rolling average of 5,000 or more new COVID infections.
Failure to comply with these regulations may result in the suspension or revocation of a facility’s license.
You can view DAL 20-11 by clicking here.
Should you have any questions regarding this Alert, please contact the Garfunkel Wild attorney with whom you regularly work, or contact us at [email protected].