As if we haven’t had enough indications that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will be doing everything it can to ensure nursing homes are providing the highest quality of care, a new CMS S&C letter released last week details the FY 2016 to FY 2017 Nursing Home Action Plan. The Plan is part of the Survey and Certification group’s continuous effort to improve nursing home safety and quality.
The Nursing Home Action Plan’s strategies should be ringing caution bells for all nursing home providers on the compliance front. They include:
- Enhancing Consumer Awareness and Assistance (by providing more data to the public)
- Strengthening Survey Processes, Standards and Training (eventually getting to the point of one survey type for all states that is a combination of the Traditional Survey and the Quality Indicator Survey (QIS))
- Improving Enforcement Activities (more penalties coming your way?)
- Promoting Quality Improvement (QAPI is finally coming to nursing homes and expect continually more Quality Measures in your future)
- Creating Strategic Approaches through Partnerships (with the success of initiatives like the National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes on overall reduction of antipsychotic use in these facilities, CMS will be creating more partnerships to help you improve your quality in specific areas)
We will be taking a look at each of these data points in the Nursing Home Action Plan and providing you more information over the next few days, so keep checking the CMSCG Blog for important nursing home compliance information!