A New Focus on Nursing Facility Staffing

…Earlier in 2018, OIG added a new topic to the Work Plan, which will focus on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) oversight of nursing facility staffing levels. The overall concern is the impact of staffing levels on residents’ quality of care.

The Medicare Requirements of Participation state that a facility must provide sufficient nursing staff on a 24-hour basis and a registered nurse for at least eight consecutive hours per day, seven days a week.

With this new topic, OIG will be examining nursing staffing levels that are reported by facilities electronically to CMS’ Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ). In addition, the review will address the efforts by CMS to ensure data accuracy and improve quality of care by examining the enforcement of minimum requirements and encouraging the hire of high-quality staff above required levels.