The incentive payment program is scheduled to be divided into four performance periods (September, October, November, December), lasting a month each with $400 million available to nursing homes in each period. All nursing homes or SNFs meeting the payment qualifications will be eligible for each of the four performance periods. Nursing homes will be assessed based on a full month's worth of data submissions, which will then undergo additional HHS review and auditing before payments are issued the following month. These four individual performance periods would be followed by an aggregate performance period that would measure performance across the entire four month period from September to December. The aggregate performance period would have an available incentive pool of at least $400 million.
