CMS Focuses on Enforcement in Latest Statement on SNF Policies

n a blog post on the Trump administration’s strategies for ensuring safety and quality in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), focused on enhanced enforcement efforts to strengthen oversight of facilities.

The post, “Ensuring Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes: Part 2 of the Five-Part Strategy Deep Dive,” described how this “second pillar” of the CMS strategy for SNFs is working to clarify and bolster the work of state survey agencies (SSAs) and address adequate staffing levels, among other steps.

On the issue of staffing, CMS is monitoring adherence to federal statute on the number of registered nurses that SNFs employ to help care for patients and residents.

To bring all facilities into compliance with these regulations, CMS started holding SNFs accountable through a the Payroll Based Journal (PBJ) reporting tool and “directed SSAs to harness the PBJ staffing data using a targeted strategy to address a troubling issue we were seeing in staffing on weekends,” Verma said.