The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced changes to the Nursing Home Compare website and the Five Star Quality Rating System [October 23, 2019 website update].
CMS Memo QSO-20-02-NH discusses changes to the quality measures and the thresholds for quality measure ratings:
- Removal of the two quality measures related to pain:
- Percentage of short-stay residents who report moderate to severe pain
- Percentage of long-stay residents who report moderate to severe pain
In April 2020, CMS will begin increasing Quality Measure (QM) thresholds by 50% of the average rate of improvement in QM score; and will do so every six months. For example, if there is an average rate of improvement of 2%, the QM threshold would be raised 1%.
CMS Memo QSO-20-01-NH provides information on the addition of an ‘abuse icon’ to Nursing Home Compare to allow consumers to identify facilities with instances of non-compliance related to abuse. Specifically the icon will identify facilities that meet the following criteria:
- Facilities cited for abuse where residents were found to be harmed (Scope/Severity of G or higher) on the most recent standard survey or on a complaint survey within the past 12 months; or
- Facilities cited for abuse where residents were found to be potentially harmed (Scope/Severity of D or higher) on the most recent standard survey or a complaint survey within the past 12 months, and on the previous (i.e., second most recent) standard survey or on a complaint survey in the prior 12 months (i.e., from 24 months ago to 12 months ago)
For more information about all the changes described in the CMS Memos, please access the Five-Star Users’ Guide October 2019.