Senator renews call for surveyor funding after staffing rule release
By
Kimberly Marselas
Sep 15, 2023
An influential senator is renewing his calls for increased funding for state survey agencies, following the release earlier this month of a federal staffing minimum that would require extensive on-site...
Nursing home survey processes to be pared back, new MDS items added in 2024: CMS
By
Kimberly Marselas
Dec 07, 2023
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will be testing truncated survey processes starting in 2024, part of an effort to make on-site inspections more efficient as the agency deals with multiple...
Standard surveys continue to lag, with infection control a major tripwire
By
Kimberly Marselas
Oct 24, 2023
A year and a half after a federal watchdog blasted the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services over extensive delays in nursing home inspections, year-end data for fiscal year 2023 shows there has been...
The staffing rule’s Swiss cheese factor
By
Kimberly Marselas
Sep 08, 2023
There’s a glaring hole in the proposed federal staffing mandate, and no, I’m not talking about that same blackhole that’s apparently sucked in 190,000 skilled nursing workers with no sign of spitting...
Nursing home oversight ‘a system in crisis,’ Senate committee finds
By
Kimberly Marselas
May 19, 2023
Oversight of the nation’s 15,000-plus nursing homes is “in crisis,” with many facilities more than a year overdue for routine inspections and nine states reporting more than half their surveyor positions...
Nursing home complaint investigations create clearer quality picture: study
By
Kimberly Marselas
Feb 08, 2023
Researchers have found that a new, complaint-focused quality metric would better represent the needs of residents and family consumers searching nursing home ratings.
Expect another Five-Star freeze amid nursing home survey delays, experts warn
By
Kimberly Marselas
Feb 20, 2024
Staffing measures used to calculate nursing homes’ federal ratings will freeze in April, further complicating a system based on often outdated and constantly changing metrics, experts warned last week.
Need a fresh survey strategy? CMS lays out 3
By
Kimberly Marselas
Dec 05, 2023
CMS officials have delivered an early gift to help providers like you map out where they should focus their compliance efforts — not just for 2024, but for 2025 as well.
In blow to providers, federal judge rules RNs not required on all survey teams
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 05, 2023
A 10-year-old case that started over a bowl of spilt soup has led to a sweeping confirmation that state survey teams do not have to include registered nurses when investigating complaints or monitoring...
Another survey; another big, bad, sad number
By
Kimberly Marselas
Sep 27, 2022
I spent nearly a month this summer examining your reflections on working in nursing homes. I read through nurse leaders’ comments about dissatisfaction with pay, the decreasing meaning in their jobs...