PBJ Library Archives

Learn everything you need to know about payroll based journal reporting with key resources, research & news.

Technical Users' Guide

Care Compare is the public listing of skilled nursing facilities and their Five Star ratings.

The Five Star Technical Users’ Guide describes the methods CMS uses to compute the overall Five Star rating for as well as the Five Star ratings for Staffing, Quality and Inspections.

CMS' QSO Memorandums

CMS communicates major policy changes and updates through memorandum and letters from the Quality, Safey & Oversight (QSO) Group sent to State Survey Agencies.

The PBJ-specific QSO memos since 2015 outline the increased enforcement of staffing requirements and use PBJ data.

CMS Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) Policy Manual

PBJ Policy Manual

The PBJ Policy Manual describes how skilled nursing facilities must report quarterly staffing levels with data on employee identifiers, date worked, hours worked and paid and unique job title and pay type codes.

View the latest PBJ Policy Manual Version 2.6, published in June 2022.

Provider PBJ Tools

CMS provides PBJ guides, spreadsheets,  instructions, and online software tools to help skilled nursing providers and their vendors comply with PBJ reporting requirements.

The PBJ Library provides a resource hub of important, current links to these critical PBJ tools from CMS.

Studies of PBJ Data

Since 2018, academic and media analysis of publicly available PBJ data has made headlines and influenced policy makers.

The PBJ Library includes our compilation of all known PBJ research studies, as well as the associated media coverage of these research studies and publications.

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