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Job Description
MDS Coordinator Confidential Garden City, NY Job Details Full-time $125,000 - $130,000 a year 3 days ago Benefits Flexible schedule Qualifications Collaborate with healthcare professionals Quality of hire (recruitment metrics) Nursing Long-term care regulations Medicare RN License Applicant-to-interview ratio tracking CMS Coding for hospital billing
RAC-CT MDS CMS
regulatory compliance Offer acceptance rate (recruitment metrics) Medicare regulations Attention to detail Cost-per-hire (recruitment metric) PointClickCare Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) billing regulations Medicaid regulations Medicaid Recruitment ROI tracking Clinical documentation standards Full Job Description
POSITION SUMMARY
The MDS Coordinator is a senior clinical nursing role responsible for leading the Minimum Data Set assessment process in full compliance with the Resident Assessment Instrument manual, CMS guidelines, and New York State Department of Health regulations. This position is the cornerstone of the facility's clinical reimbursement and quality outcomes program. The MDS Coordinator is not a desk-bound position. We expect this individual to be a visible, hands-on clinical presence on the nursing floor — actively participating in resident care, collaborating with nursing staff in real time, and using direct observation to drive the accuracy and integrity of every assessment. This role bridges the clinical and financial operations of the facility, and candidates who thrive here are those who see the MDS not as paperwork, but as a reflection of the care we provide.
CLINICAL FLOOR PRESENCE & NURSING INVOLVEMENT
The MDS Coordinator is expected to maintain a consistent, meaningful presence on the nursing units and actively participate in day-to-day clinical nursing operations. This means conducting direct resident observation and interaction on the floor to personally verify clinical status, functional ability, cognitive function, and behavioral patterns prior to coding MDS items — rather than relying solely on chart review. The MDS Coordinator will round daily with nursing staff and charge nurses to stay abreast of changes in resident condition, new physician orders, acute episodes, and care concerns that impact assessment accuracy. Active participation in nursing shift huddles, stand-up meetings, and unit-level clinical discussions is expected, as is direct collaboration with CNAs, LPNs, and RNs during hands-on care activities to observe ADL performance, mobility levels, and behavioral presentations firsthand. Beyond assessment accuracy, the MDS Coordinator serves as a clinical resource and mentor to nursing floor staff regarding documentation standards, care plan alignment, and the clinical significance of MDS-captured data. When nursing staff identify a significant change in a resident's condition, the MDS Coordinator is expected to respond proactively — initiating SCSA assessments promptly and coordinating the appropriate clinical response. This individual is also responsible for identifying care delivery gaps on the floor that may affect resident outcomes and quality measures, and communicating those findings to the Director of Nursing and administration. The MDS Coordinator should be a known presence on the floor — recognized by the residents, the aides, and the nurses — not just by the clinical leadership team.
MDS ASSESSMENT & RAI PROCESS
The MDS Coordinator is responsible for completing and transmitting accurate and timely MDS assessments for all required assessment types, including the 5-Day, 14-Day, 30-Day, 60-Day, 90-Day, Annual, Significant Change, Significant Correction, and Discharge assessments. This individual coordinates the full RAI process, including assessment reference dates, interdisciplinary team contributions, care area assessments, and care plan development. Mastery of PDPM coding requirements is essential, encompassing all classification categories including PT/OT/SLP, nursing, non-therapy ancillary, and non-case mix components. The MDS Coordinator monitors and manages Medicare Part A stay tracking, PDPM clinical category assignment, interrupted stay policy, and anticipated discharge planning, and maintains an accurate and current assessment schedule for all Medicare, Medicaid, and managed care residents.
CARE PLANNING & INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION
The MDS Coordinator leads and facilitates interdisciplinary care plan meetings, ensuring that goals are individualized, measurable, and reflective of each resident's clinical status and personal preferences. Care plans must be initiated within required regulatory timeframes and updated following each significant change, hospitalization, or quarterly review. This role requires close collaboration with therapy — physical, occupational, and speech — as well as social services, dietary, activities, and nursing to gather comprehensive and accurate interdisciplinary team input for MDS completion. The MDS Coordinator also serves as the clinical liaison between the nursing floor and administration on matters related to resident-level care concerns, documentation accuracy, and reimbursement implications.
REIMBURSEMENT & REVENUE INTEGRITY
The MDS Coordinator is responsible for optimizing appropriate and accurate PDPM reimbursement by ensuring MDS coding reflects the true clinical complexity of each resident's presentation. This includes monitoring Medicare Part A and managed care authorization, length of stay, and reimbursement rate accuracy in coordination with billing and administration. The MDS Coordinator participates in Medicare triple-check meetings prior to billing submission to identify and resolve discrepancies between MDS data, therapy documentation, and nursing records, and tracks facility Case Mix Index to alert administration to trends that may indicate undercoding, overcoding, or shifts in reimbursement performance.
QUALITY MEASURES & REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
The MDS Coordinator monitors facility performance on CMS Quality Measures — including hospitalization rates, falls with injury, pressure injuries, antipsychotic use, and functional decline — and works with clinical leadership to address negative trends. This individual prepares for and participates in all Department of Health surveys, including standard annual surveys and complaint investigations, serving as a primary clinical resource for surveyors reviewing MDS-related documentation. A working knowledge of all current CMS RAI manual updates, PDPM refinements, and New York State Medicaid case mix reimbursement requirements is required and must be maintained on an ongoing basis. The MDS Coordinator is also responsible for ensuring all MDS submissions meet federal and state deadlines and for monitoring iQIES submission reports to resolve any edit or warning conditions.
DOCUMENTATION & STAFF EDUCATION
The MDS Coordinator ensures that nursing documentation — including nursing notes, flow sheets, therapy logs, and physician orders — is complete, consistent, and fully supportive of MDS coding. An important part of this role is educating and re-educating nursing and ancillary staff on documentation standards that directly impact MDS accuracy, including ADL coding, restorative nursing documentation, and behavioral observation recording. All MDS records, RAI documentation, and CAA summaries must be maintained in a secure and organized manner in accordance with facility policy and regulatory requirements.
QUALIFICATIONS A
current, active Registered Nurse license in the State of New York is required with no exceptions. The RAC-CT credential from
AANAC/AADNS
is strongly preferred; candidates without certification at the time of hire must commit to obtaining it within 12 months. Demonstrated PDPM training and competency in current PDPM classification methodology is required. Candidates must bring a minimum of two years of MDS coordination experience in a skilled nursing facility, with three to five years preferred. Equally important is a genuine clinical nursing background — the ideal candidate has direct patient care experience in a long-term care, subacute, or acute setting and remains comfortable and confident working on the nursing floor. Working knowledge of PointClickCare or a comparable EHR and MDS software platform is required, and experience with Medicare Part A billing and managed care authorizations is preferred. The MDS Coordinator must possess deep knowledge of the CMS RAI manual, PDPM payment system, and New York State Medicaid case mix reimbursement, along with strong clinical assessment skills sufficient to perform or validate resident evaluations that support MDS accuracy. Excellent organizational skills are essential, as is the ability to manage multiple simultaneous assessment deadlines without compromising quality. Strong interpersonal and communication skills are required to lead IDT meetings, educate nursing staff, and present data clearly to administration. This individual must be detail-oriented, analytically minded, and self-directed — able to manage a complex independent workload while remaining genuinely engaged with the clinical team on the floor.
WORKING CONDITIONS
This position is based on-site at a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility. The MDS Coordinator is expected to divide time meaningfully between direct floor presence and administrative MDS completion work. Remote or hybrid arrangements are not available for this role, given the expectation of active clinical engagement. The position may require occasional extended hours around assessment deadlines, survey activity, or census changes, and involves regular walking, standing, and clinical interaction in resident care areas throughout the workday.
