The Nursing Homes Profiles quality data provides a consumer-friendly product that allows patients and their families to understand how the New York State Nursing Homes perform within five specific domains of care and overall. The domains (Preventive Care, Quality of Care, Quality of Life, Resident Safety and Resident Status) encompass twenty-four different quality measures. A Domain Rating assesses performance over all the measures within that domain, with 5 stars indicating the highest performance and 1 star the lowest performance. The Overall Rating is a normalized star rating based on the Nursing Homes' performance across the five domains. The normalization of the Overall Rating resets the distribution, with the highest performing Nursing Homes across all the domains having 5 stars and the lowest performing Nursing Homes across the five domains having 1 star. New York’s Nursing Home Domain Rating differs from CMS’ 5-star rating in data reporting period and in methodology.

The Nursing Home Cost Report (RHCF) is a uniform report completed by New York nursing homes to report income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and statistics to the Department of Health (DOH). Under DOH regulations (Part 86-2.2), nursing homes are required to file financial and statistical data with DOH annually. The data filed is part of the cost report and is received electronically through a secured network. This data is used to develop Medicaid rates, assist in the formulation of reimbursement methodologies, and analyze trends.