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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The Freeze Sets In: Minimal CMS Star Rating Changes Due to Covid-19

In our previous posts, we noted that CMS has frozen the Survey Rating and intends to freeze the Staffing Rating and some Quality Measures starting this month.  Let’s take a look at the impact of some of these changes. [visualizer id=”6994″ lazy=”no”] In a typical, non-frozen month, about 5% of facilities nationwide experience a Survey […]

CMS Releases Targeted Infection Control Survey Results

In a memo dated March 23, CMS announced a freeze on standard Survey activity and a requirement for states to focus on Targeted Infection Control Surveys and Complaint Surveys at the Immediate Jeopardy level.  On April 24, another memo outlined that no Survey conducted after March 4 would be used to change a facility’s Survey […]

Assessing Operational Risk Remotely – The New Norm for Healthcare Lenders

CMS released its monthly updates today, and with them, some major changes as a result of Covid-19. Per CMS's memo on March 23rd, most normal Survey activity has...

April 2020 CMS Updates

CMS released its monthly updates today, and with them, some major changes as a result of Covid-19. Per CMS's memo on March 23rd, most normal Survey activity has...