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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published a proposed rule on February 15, 2023 that would require Medicare-enrolled skilled nursing facilities (“SNFs”) and Medicaid-enrolled nursing facilities (“NFs”) to disclose additional ownership and management information to CMS and state Medicaid agencies.

The proposed rule would implement Section 1124(c) of the Social Security Act, which was created by the Affordable Care Act to require the disclosure of information about ownership and oversight of SNFs and NFs. CMS first published a proposed rule in 2011 to implement the provision; after receiving public comments, that rule was not finalized. Twelve years later, CMS is trying again, citing concerns about the standard of care that residents receive in these facilities, including those owned by private equity companies and real estate investment trusts (“REITs”).…

Continue Reading CMS Wants to Know Who Owns Nursing Facilities

On June 11, 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) announced that it had released revised reporting requirements for those providers and suppliers that have received Provider Relief Fund payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Readers may recall that HHS previously issued notices on post-payment reporting requirements starting in July 2020, and that previous…

The 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic (“COVID-19”) introduced several unfamiliar hardships adversely impacting the long-term care industry, especially for nursing homes.  Acknowledging these hardships, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) enacted several temporary emergency blanket waivers effective March 1, 2020, lending flexibility to nursing homes in their COVID-19 response efforts.  Since that time, according…

On April 19th, 2021 Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) signed the state’s Budget for Health and Mental Hygiene (A3007C/S2507C), which includes several significant changes impacting the state’s nursing home operators and investors. Most notably, the legislation’s principal provisions require reinvestment of revenue into each nursing home facility and a cap on the profit the facility can…

On August 27, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) filed an interim final rule with comment period (“IFC”), detailing new long-term care (“LTC”) facility COVID-19 testing requirements and strengthening enforcement of existing related facility reporting requirements.  According to CMS, the IFC represents the agency’s latest effort in an ongoing initiative to control…

On June 1, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) unveiled new measures designed to enhance enforcement and oversight of nursing homes and related state survey agencies.  CMS announced the new policies concurrently with the release of federal data detailing the incidence of nursing home COVID-19 infections, which was also made available on…

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced on May 12, 2020, that his office is investigating several nursing homes in the Commonwealth for neglect of patients and residents: “We will hold nursing facilities and caretakers criminally accountable if they fail to properly provide care to our loved ones … we will not tolerate those who mistreat our seniors and break the law.” Shapiro has also launched a public portal for citizens to email reports of neglect in nursing home communities. As is the case in many states, nursing home patients make up the majority of the deaths associated with COVID-19 in Pennsylvania. Just over 2,611 nursing home residents and staff have died from COVID-19 in Pennsylvania, comprising nearly 70 percent of the 3,800 total deaths reported in the Commonwealth as of the date of the press release.

Attorney General Shapiro is not alone in his effort to take a closer look at nursing home facilities and caregivers, even while lobbying groups for health care providers and nursing homes push for broad immunity from coronavirus-related lawsuits. In late April, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a statement saying that her office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit continues to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect in nursing homes. James’ office similarly launched a nursing home abuse hotline for residents, families, and members of the public to report alleged complaints at the facilities. Specifically, Attorney General James is investigating a Queens adult care facility that allegedly failed to protect residents from COVID-19 and misled families about its spread. Residents of that same facility are now suing in federal court over similar allegations. State attorneys general are increasingly active on this issue and will be pursuing nursing homes and long-term care facilities through various angles including Medicaid fraud, consumer protection, and false advertising.…

Continue Reading Nursing homes face increased scrutiny by attorneys general during COVID-19

With portions of the country beginning to reopen, on May 18, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its recommendations to state and local officials for best practices regarding the reopening of nursing homes. Because nursing homes have been severely impacted by COVID-19, CMS issued a memorandum to state officials regarding the…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed simplifying and streamlining long-term care (LTC) facility rules and survey processes to “increase provider flexibility and reduce excessively burdensome regulations, while also allowing facilities to focus on providing high-quality healthcare to their residents.”  In addition to numerous other provisions, CMS proposes the following changes that…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released its 232-page proposed rule to update the Medicare skilled nursing facility (SNF) prospective payment system (PPS) for federal fiscal year (FY) 2020, which begins on October 1, 2019. Overall, CMS projects that SNF PPS payments would rise by $887 million under the proposed rule. Specifically,…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently revised its guidance to states on standards for citing “immediate jeopardy” during surveys of all provider and supplier types and laboratories, including health, emergency preparedness, and life safety code surveys.  CMS Administrator Seema Verma observed in a blog post that the changes were made in response…

Congressional panels continue to focus on federal health care policy topics, including cost, quality, and program integrity issues. Recent hearings have included the following:

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its annual proposed update to Medicare skilled nursing facility (SNF) PPS rates and policies for fiscal year (FY) 2019. In addition to providing a $850 million boost to Medicare payments for FY 2019, CMS proposes a new case mix classification system to replace the…

The 2018 National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) Presidential Initiative, “Protecting America’s Seniors: Attorneys General United Against Elder Abuse,” has come to a close with a summit held April 17-18 in Manhattan, Kansas, capping off an eight-month campaign during which state AG offices have augmented and sharpened their tools for investigating exploitation of this vulnerable population.

The initiative, selected by current NAAG president  Derek Schmidt, Kansas Attorney General, has brought AGs from around the country together to build state expertise on this issue and to fight elder abuse, neglect and exploitation. It has included a focus on nursing homes and other parts of the health industry that affect the elderly.
Continue Reading State Attorneys General Zero in on Elder Abuse, Health Services Industry Practices

CMS has made numerous technical and typographical corrections to its October 4, 2016 final rule revising the requirements that long-term care facilities must meet to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. CMS notes that the corrections are consistent with the policy discussion in the final rule and do not result in substantive policy changes.  …

In a clear turnabout from its previous position, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule on June 5, 2017 that would lift the agency’s ban on pre-dispute arbitration agreements in the long term care (LTC) setting. By contrast, less than nine months earlier, CMS prohibited LTC facilities from entering into pre-dispute arbitration agreements with residents, conditioning admission to a facility on the execution of such agreements, or making a resident’s continuing right to remain at a facility contingent upon a post-dispute arbitration agreement.

The industry’s response to the ban was swift and resolute—on October 17, 2016, the American Health Care Association and a group of nursing homes filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent CMS from enforcing the ban on pre-dispute arbitration agreements. The U.S. District Court for the District of Mississippi granted the request for preliminary injunction on November 7, 2016, stalling enforcement of the final rule’s arbitration provisions.
Continue Reading CMS Reverses Course in Pre-Dispute Arbitration Agreement Ban

CMS has issued its proposed rule to update Medicare skilled nursing facility (SNF) prospective payment system (PPS) rates and policies for FY 2018, while at the same time soliciting comments regarding a forthcoming and potentially ground-breaking proposed rule to replace the SNF PPS RUG-IV case-mix classification methodology, which forms the basis for SNF payment, with the Resident Classification System, Version I (RCS-I), as early as FY 2019.

For nearly ten years, CMS, the Office of Inspector General, and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission have raised concerns that the current SNF payment system encourages providers to deliver therapy to residents based on financial goals and not patient need.  The RCS-I case-mix model, which was developed during the SNF Payment Models Research initiative, attempts to address those concerns by removing service-based metrics from the SNF PPS and deriving payment, almost exclusively, from objective resident characteristics.  Most notably, the proposed RCS-I case-mix model would:…
Continue Reading CMS Simultaneously Releases Proposed Rule to Update SNF PPS for FY 2018 & Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to Replace RUG-IV Case-Mix Methodology as Early as FY 2019

Using unusually blunt language, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recently noted that it “is increasingly frustrated with the lack of statutory or regulatory action” to lower Medicare skilled nursing facility (SNF) payments and revise the payment system to link payments to patients’ characteristics and costs of care.  It appears, however, that the Centers for …

 The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reviewed the Medicare Five-Star Quality Rating System for nursing homes and identified several factors that may prevent consumers from using the website “as an easy way to understand nursing home quality and identify high- and low- performing homes.”  In particular, GAO concluded:

  • The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’

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