Single Source Procurement: Nursing Home Nurse Aide Certification/Registry

The federal Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Acts of 1987, 1989 and 1990 amending Sections 1819 and 1919 of the Social Security Act require each state to implement an nursing home nurse aide program with the following components: (1) a curriculum for training nurse aides working in Medicare- and Medicaid-approved nursing homes; (2) state-approved facility-based and non-facility-based nurse aide training programs; (3) competency evaluations which include skills evaluation (demonstration) and written examination (with the availability of oral administration of the written examination); (4) a registry of all nurse aides who have successfully completed training and competency evaluations; and (5) a system for adding to and removing information from a nurse aide's record in the registry related to final findings of and/or criminal convictions for resident abuse, neglect and misappropriation of residents' personal belongings.

The NYS Department of Health has procured federally-required components 3, 4 and 5 from a vendor since these requirements were first implemented. The current vendor is Prometric, Inc., whose contract term is July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2015. Prometric develops and owns all exams that it administers on behalf of the NYS Department of Health as part of the federally-required nurse aide competency evaluation. It determines the score that is used to determine whether a candidate has passed or failed an exam. (A passing score indicates a minimally qualified nurse aide.) Prometric scores the exams and notifies candidates, nurse aide training programs and nurse aide employers of the results. It conducts a national nursing home nurse aide job analysis and develops new tests with hundreds of new test items every seven to ten years and determines new "cut scores" to identify passing candidates. It assembles test items into test forms. It administers the tests or exams to candidates in both facility-based and its own regional testing centers. Prometric also manages the biennial nurse aide recertification process.

At no charge to the Department of Health, Prometric hosts and maintains the NYS Nurse Aide Registry on its own website in conformance with federal and NYS rules and regulations. It is responsible for adding and deleting nurse aides from the public view of the registry on its website as well as for updating a nurse aide's information on the registry upon request from the nurse aide. Prometric owns all computer applications and information technology associated with developing and maintaining the NYS Nurse Aide Registry on its website. The Department of Health owns the data that populates the databases (and database documentation) used by the applications. Historically, these services have been procured via a competitive RFP process

The Department of Health requested and received a Contract Reporter Exemption Request for a nine moths extension of the current contract with an end date of June 30, 2015 amended to March 31, 2016. This will enable us to competitively procure the replacement contract.

Procurement / Program Name Nursing Home Nurse Aide Certification/Registry
Contractor Name(s) Prometrics
Contract Period 6/30/2015 - 3/31/2016
Contract Number(s) C026122