Nursing Home News 2026Jan16

CMS to remove complaint allegations from NH Care Compare

CMS will remove reporting of unsubstantiated complaints in Care Compare next month. CMS released a Special Alert Memo regarding this change. In the memo they stated that there are data discrepancies that may be reflected on NH Care Compare and they are actively working on correcting this information to remove data that may be inaccurate. As discussed in a recent McKnights article on this topic, LeadingAge had brought the concerns of members to the attention of CMS leadership. The memo also lists an email address for provider concerns regarding this matter, which is BetterCare@cms.hhs.gov. 

State Call with Nebraska Licensure

LAN held our joint associations call with DHHS licensure on Wednesday this week. For nursing homes, we covered the current issue with iQues postings or notifications not being received. Those notifications are only sent to the original HARP account that was set up for the EPOC. We also covered trends in citations as follows:

• F605 Chemical restraints. Problem areas include not implementing the 14 day stop, not having a rationale for use and not using non-pharmacological interventions in place. 
• F880 Infection Control. This will likely always be high due to the number of issues that are accredited to this area. Recent problem areas include EBP during high contact, following precautions, not changing gloves, not completing hand hygiene especially between gloves, not cleaning and disinfecting equipment- especially lifts, therapy equipment, cuffs, staff holding soiled linens too close to clothing, not testing when symptoms are present. 
• F812 Food Safety- Problem areas include not labeling or dating food, dishwasher temperatures, not discarding food when needed, temperatures of food and proper hair restraints. 
• F610 Investigate Allegations- Problem areas include not reporting major injuries or abuse, not putting interventions in place and not completing written 5 day reports.  

CMS Begins SNF Data Validation Process

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has officially begun the Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF) Data Validation Process finalized in the Fiscal Year 2024 and 2025 SNF Prospective Payment System (PPS) rules. These audits are meant to validate Minimum Data Set (MDS) data used in the SNF Quality Reporting Program (QRP) and Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program measures. CMS will randomly select up to 1,500 SNFs per year for audit. Selected SNFs will be notified through iQIES and will be required to provide medical records to support coding on up to 10 selected MDS assessments. SNFs that fail to comply with the validation process could see impacts to their Annual Payment Update. More information, including an overview presentation and a Frequently Asked Questions document, are available here. A training video from CMS is available here.

Here is your NATIONAL Nursing Home Weekly Recap