04 Apr
Fixes for the “Broken” Nursing Home Star Ratings Part 1: Survey
Source: CMS It’s not a surprise to see Nursing Homes in the news, and it’s usually not to paint a sunny picture. Issues related to COVID-19 have understandably dominated much of the recent coverage, but a March article in the New York Times took aim at a different target – CMS’s Star Ratings system. Articles […]
01 Feb
Infection Control Deficiencies Showing Outsized Impact on Survey Star Rating
Source: CMS As we reported in December, CMS recently announced that the results of Focused Infection Control Surveys (FICs) conducted during the pandemic would be included in the Health Inspection (Survey) domain of the Five-Star program for Nursing Home ratings. This reversed course from a previous statement that these deficiencies would not contribute to Five […]
10 Dec
Survey and Quality to be Unfrozen, Infection Surveys Included
Source: CMS The Thaw Continues According to their memo on December 4th, CMS will resume calculation of the Health Inspection (Survey) and Quality domains of the Five-Star Rating system for Skilled Nursing Facilities as of January 27, 2021. This continues the trend started last month with an end to the one-quarter “freeze” of the Staffing […]
09 Nov
Unfrozen Staffing Star Ratings Rise, Defying Expectations
Source: CMS Frozen No More At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, CMS issued several waivers to help facilities focus on patient care rather than on reporting requirements. In addition to the earlier halt of standard Survey activity, these waivers covered both MDS and PBJ data, resulting in freezes to several of the Star Rating domains. But […]
21 Oct
SNF Trends Report Underlines Correlation Between Star Ratings, Occupancy and Operating Margin
Image credit: CLA Recently, respected advisory firm CliftonLarsonAllen released their latest SNF Cost Comparison and Industry Trends Report. CLA explores several prevailing themes in an industry besieged by challenges, including issues with decreased liquidity and occupancy, the rise of telehealth, and the continuing importance of PDPM to the bottom line. But one of the findings […]