Medicare, Medicaid to Take Closer Look at Nursing Home Staffing

CMS has updated guidance on minimum health and safety standards that long-term care facilities must meet to participate in Medicare and Medicaid. The guidance specifically addresses nursing home staffing concerns that some say have impacted care quality.

The agency also updated and created new guidance for surveyors of long-term care facilities who determine whether facilities comply with CMS requirements. The new requirements made as part of the recent update incorporate the use of Payroll Based Journal staffing data. CMS has instructed surveyors to use the data for long-term care facility inspections. The agency said the data will “help better identify potential noncompliance with CMS’s nurse staffing requirements,” including a lack of a registered nurse for eight hours each day.

“This guidance will help to uncover instances of insufficient staffing and yield higher quality care,” CMS added in the announcement.