The impact of survey delays on nursing home quality and consumer information
By
Steven Littlehale
May 24, 2024
In a column published by McKnight’s in December 2023, “Revamping CMS Survey Data Integration Amid Regulatory Lag in Nursing Home Oversight,” I urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services...
Lots to learn with new Five-Star
By
Steven Littlehale
Jul 22, 2022
On a recent flight, I sat next to an attorney whose principal focus was compliance. It turned out that we were both on our way to speak at events in the same popular Florida conference destination. She...
Revamping CMS survey data integration amid regulatory lag in nursing home oversight
By
Steven Littlehale
Dec 08, 2023
The report titled “Uninspected and Neglected” by the majority staff of the US Senate Special Committee on Aging brings attention to a pressing issue: the severe understaffing of inspection agencies...
CMS to begin audits for schizophrenia coding, says citations will affect quality ratings
By
Alicia Lasek
Jan 19, 2023
The agency will start auditing nursing homes this month to determine whether residents’ schizophrenia diagnoses are accurate and appropriately coded. A pattern of inaccurate coding may result in a quality...
The Five Star Report, once again, in the SNF spotlight
By
Steven Littlehale
Sep 24, 2014
The Five Star Quality Rating System takes the spotlight on the front page of the New York Times and the top of the news cycle, kicking off other publicity and political pressure. Regardless of any of the...
Reaching for 5 stars? Leverage technology for staffing compliance
By
Marina Aslanyan
Nov 23, 2020
As additional waves of COVID-19 bear down on the long-term care and post-acute industry, it has never been more important for operators to comply with staffing regulations that best protect our most vulnerable...
How to make payroll-based journaling easy
By
Thomas Jegou
Jun 01, 2021
As reporting standards go, Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) reporting stands out as notoriously difficult. It involves a lot of labor and can be prone to ratings-endangering errors. Meeting the PBJ reporting...
Where were YOU when CMS changed the Five-Star rating system?
By
Steven Littlehale
Mar 20, 2015
Some things will always stay etched in our mind. Where were you on February 12, when CMS publicly announced immediate changes to the Five Star Quality Rating System for Nursing Homes?
Regulators consider adding satisfaction surveys to nursing home rating system
Jul 10, 2009
Federal regulators are meeting with nursing home operators and other key stakeholders today to discuss ways in which resident and family satisfaction surveys might be factored into the new facility Five-Star...
Three stars will be the new one star
By
Betsy Rust
Dec 07, 2016
Nursing home operators call it low occupancy. Medicare insiders call it a declining census. Economists call it excess capacity.