Nursing homes candidates for fed program
Program focuses on poorest performers
Two Memphis nursing homes are on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services list of candidates for a program that puts special focus on the nation’s “poorest-performing nursing homes.”
The Memphis-area homes on the candidate list are AHC Harbor View on 1513 N 2nd Street and Whitehaven Community Living Center at 1076 Chambliss Road. AHC Harbor View has been on the candidate list for eight months while Whitehaven Community Living Center has been on the list for six months.
Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will increase scrutiny and oversight of nursing homes in the Special Focus Facility Program, including toughening requirements for completion of the program and increasing enforcement actions for facilities that fail to demonstrate improvement.
Federal funding will be terminated for facilities that don’t improve, while sustainable improvements will be incentivized.
“Let us be clear: we are cracking down on enforcement of our nation’s poorest-performing nursing homes,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a news release. “As President (Joe) Biden directed, we are increasing scrutiny and taking aggressive action to ensure everyone living in nursing homes gets the highquality care they deserve. We are demanding better, because our seniors deserve better.”
Currently, there are 88 facilities participating in the Special Focus Facility Program, including Bailey Park CLC in Humboldt (listed as having not improved in the 39 months it has been in the program).
Brookhaven Manor in Kingsport has graduated from the program.
The two Memphis nursing homes are on the candidate list, from which nursing homes are pulled to fill the Special Facility Focus slot for each state, with a minimum candidate pool of five nursing homes and a maximum of 30 per state.
When a facility graduates or is terminated from the program, a new facility is selected from a monthly list of candidates.
Neither of the Memphis nursing homes responded on Thursday to a Commercial Appeal request for comment.
There are 10 Tennessee nursing homes in total on the candidate list, ranging from Franklin to Maryville.
Facilities actually in the program are inspected no less than once every six months “and face increasingly severe enforcement actions if improvement is not demonstrated,” according to a news release.
Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.