Policy Snapshot
July 3, 2024
Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) posted a memo describing recent updates to nursing home data and Care Compare (QSO-24-14-NH). Specifically:
- Update Nursing Home Guides Posted on the Medicare.gov Care Compare website: CMS will post new guides for consumers on the Medicare.gov Nursing Home Care Compare website to further support consumers choosing a nursing home and those already admitted to a nursing home.
- Implement the New Staffing Level Case-Mix Methodology: CMS will implement the new staffing level case-mix adjustment methodology, announced in September 2023 (QSO-23-21-NH), for staffing measures reported on Nursing Home Care Compare. On July 31, 2024, CMS will begin posting nursing home staffing measures based on the new staffing level case-mix adjustment methodology. To minimize the potential disruption associated with implementing the new case-mix adjustment methodology, CMS will revise the staffing rating thresholds to maintain the same overall distribution of points for affected staffing measures. More information about the new methodology is provided in the Nursing Home Care Compare Five Star Technical Users’ Guide.
- Revise the Staffing Turnover Methodology: CMS will revise the nursing home staffing turnover methodology so that employees on leave for 90 days or less are not counted as staff turnover.
- Post Facility Data: To increase transparency, CMS will post data on the characteristics of nursing homes and their residents on data.cms.gov. On July 31, 2024, CMS will start posting this aggregate information at the facility level (i.e., aggregated for all residents within a facility) on data.cms.gov. CMS will also post facility characteristics collected on the CMS-671 form on each nursing home’s annual standard inspection. This includes information such as the type of services a facility provides (e.g., dedicated special care units and organized residents’ groups), type of ownership details (e.g., non-profit, government-owned, multi-facility-owned or leased), and resident census.