Feds announce changes in nursing home rating system
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced changes Friday to its often-critiqued five-star rating system for nursing home quality —- changes that are likely to negatively affect the ratings for thousands of facilities.
Among the adjustments: the agency is altering how it calculates the staffing figures that are one component of the all-encompassing quality score on the Nursing Home Compare website. That website is widely used by the pubic in evaluating and comparing 15,000 nursing homes nationwide, and is thus crucial to family decisions about where to place a loved one who needs care.
Related: Analysis shows widespread discrepancies in staffing levels reported by nursing homes
Whereas it was previously possible for a facility to receive less than four stars in both the registered nurse and total staffing sub-categories and still earn a four-star ranking for staffing overall, now nursing homes must receive the four-star level mark in at least one of those sub-categories in order to receive the four-star staffing rating, according to Patrick Conway, chief medical officer for CMS, the federal agency responsible for overseeing nursing homes. Conway added that homes also must receive at least three stars in both the registered nurse and total staffing components in order to achieve the overall four-star rating for staffing.
Thomas Hamilton, director of the agency’s survey and certification group, said 13 percent, or about 2,000, of the nation’s nursing homes will lose one or two stars on staffing as a result of these policy changes, and other changes in the data underlying nursing homes’ staffing ratings. He explained that the staffing and other changes are part of the agency’s effort to promote continuous improvement in the industry that he said has occurred since the launch of the five-star rating system in December 2008. Staffing is but one criteria used to determine the broader quality score; among the others are health inspections and the percent of residents who are physically restrained.
Related: Poorly rated nursing homes got HUD-guaranteed mortgages anyway
In all, about one in three, or about 5,000 nursing homes, will see their broader quality star rating decrease as a result of the changes, according to Conway.
“We view these changes as part of our continuing journey of quality improvement for the Nursing Home Compare website,” Conway said.
Related: Nursing homes serving minorities offering less care than those housing whites
A Center for Public Integrity investigation published in November found widespread gaps between staffing levels reported by nursing homes and staffing levels calculated through an analysis of the homes’ annual financial documents, called cost reports.
The gaps occurred in both nonprofit and for-profit nursing homes, and for all types of direct care staffing positions, though the gaps were greatest for reported levels of registered nurses.
Related: How data-driven journalism revealed racial disparities in U.S. nursing homes
In 2012 the self-reported staffing levels for registered nurses were higher than the average daily level calculated through cost reports in more than 80 percent of nursing homes, the Center found.
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Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
