Nursing Home Rating to Be Overhauled
The five-star rating system used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to review nursing homes will go through an overhaul after the passage of the Improving Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act. The bill, which President Obama signed into law in October, will increase official visits to hospice facilities.
CMS’ Nursing Home Compare site ranks providers on a scale of 1 to 5, but the system came under fire after complaints that it was inadequate and the data was self-reported and unverified. Since the government did not audit the nursing homes, they were rated via an honor system and the assumption that their reported statistics were correct.
Beginning in January, CMS will gather staffing data directly, instead of relying on self-reported data and turnover rates. Re-hospitalization rates and reductions in antipsychotic drug use will both now be included in the rating system.
“IMPACT will standardize assessments for critical care issues across the spectrum of post-acute care providers,” Mark Parkinson, president and chief executive officer of the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living, said in a statement when the Senate had passed the bill. “Assessing improvement in areas such as functional outcomes, pressure ulcers and dementia goes a long way toward improving the health and well-being of our patients. This will also allow the development and public reporting of quality measures for providers.”