CMS Offers New Updates on COVID-19 Impact on Nursing Home Compare, Five-Star

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a memo (QSO-20-28-NH) with updates on Nursing Home Compare (NHC), Five-Star Quality Rating System, public staffing information, and a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs).

Included in the new information, CMS said it will temporarily hold constant the inspection domain of Five-Star to prevent an unequal impact on the rating for those facilities that receive a survey during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. This freeze will begin with the scheduled Nursing Home Compare update on April 29, 2020.

In other developments, CMS said it will use Payroll-Based Journal staffing data to publicly report the average number of staff on site at each nursing facility each day (both nursing staff and total staff) and will also post aggregated data at a state and national level. The publicly posted information will include all staff listed in section 2.3, Table 1 of the PBJ Policy Manual, AHCA/NCAL said.