Health

The CMS nursing home crackdown targets the worst performing people


The Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that nursing homes that consistently perform worse than their other health care facilities will have to meet stricter standards and demonstrate quality improvements. systematic measures to avoid enforcement actions, including exclusion from Medicare and Medicaid.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is revising its Special Spotlight Facility Program, which addresses nursing home underperformance, to make it difficult for facilities to meet its requirements. .

“Low-performing nursing homes have a chance to improve, but if they don’t, the changes we’re making to CMS’s Special Focus Facility Program will make the facilities worse off. This facility is responsible for the health and safety of their residents,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a press release.

This increased surveillance is part of President Joe Biden’s plan – announced in February just before the State of the Union speech – to enhance the quality and safety of nursing homes by requiring Minimum staffing requirements, increased infection control measures, and oversight of for-profit nursing homes, among other policies.

There were 88 nursing homes with an ongoing record of non-compliance participating in the Special Spotlight Facilities Program this year, representing about 0.5% of all nursing homes. To complete the program, nursing homes must pass two consecutive examinations that take place approximately every six months.

The revised program will not allow nursing homes to exit the program if inspections reveal more than certain deficiencies, or if facilities are not significantly improved.

CMS recommends that skilled nursing facilities work with quality improvement organizations and external consultants to implement evidence-based interventions and implement meaningful changes. personnel and leadership.

The agency also advises State Survey Agencies to consider nursing home staff levels, in addition to their compliance history, when selecting candidates for the Special Focus Facilities Program. separate.

If nursing homes continue to fail to comply with the quality rules or make little to no improvement efforts, CMS will subject them to severe enforcement sanctions, such as arbitrarily refusing to pay. payments for new hospitalizations, civil fines, or directed repair plans. Any facility cited for “immediately dangerous” omissions in two surveys when participating in the Special Focus Facilities Program may be terminated by Medicare and Medicaid.

In addition, CMS is extending supervision for nursing homes that have left the program to implement possible enforcement actions if their performance declines after they are no longer under supervision. further.

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