Ask the payment expert …. about the total nurse staffing measure

Q: What is the Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Payment Total Nurse Staffing Measure?

A: The Total Nursing Hours Per Resident Day Measure uses auditable electronic data reported to the Payroll-Based Journal system to calculate total nursing hours per resident day. It is one of two new measures that will begin affecting payments in the FY 2026 SNF VBP program year, the other being SNF Healthcare Associated Infections Requiring Hospitalization.

The numerator for this measure is the total nursing hours derived from PBJ data. Total nursing hours include RN, LPN and CNA hours per resident day. The denominator is a count of daily resident census derived from MDS assessments. The daily MDS census is summed across all days in the quarter.