CMS will crack down on state nursing home inspectors
THE CMS LAST WEEK announced that it was bolstering its system for holding nursing home inspectors accountable.
The agency plans changes to the State Performance Standards System to address concerns about infrequent and ill-timed nursing home inspections. The CMS will update how it evaluates the performance of state survey agencies that actually inspect nursing homes, as well as update Standards System assessment tools.
The changes are aimed at ensuring that inspections are done correctly and on time, the agency said. They will also ensure that enforcement actions, including civil monetary penalties, are consistently applied.
“By holding inspectors accountable for conducting timely and consistent inspections, we’re holding nursing homes accountable for providing safe, high-quality care—helping ensure safe nursing home environments,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement.
Survey agencies will experience increased monitoring thanks to new metrics to make sure that states inspect nursing homes on time. The CMS will also review new state performance indicators each quarter to expose problems with nursing home inspections. Those reviews used to occur at the end of the fiscal year to evaluate how well states were inspecting nursing homes.
The agency will step up how it holds survey agencies accountable for their handling of “immediate jeopardy” situations, which are health and safety situations presenting a pressing danger.
The changes are one step in the agency’s work to improve nursing home inspections. In the future, states may be allowed to determine how to address problems on their own and create specific plans to help the federal government identify low-performing survey agencies. The CMS also plans to increase states’ access to centralized data so survey agencies can figure out how to meet federal mandates.
The Trump administration this month announced it would make it easier for consumers to learn about nursing homes that have violated rules on abuse, neglect or exploitation through improvements to its Nursing Home Compare website. The site offers detailed information about Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing homes in the U.S. ●