PBJ technical specifications changed
Our Take: CMS made minor updates to the PBJ data specification for uploaded PBJ files. Users can no longer submit more than 22.5 hours per employee ID. XML files are…
Our Take: CMS began publicly posting nursing home staff turnover rates and weekend staffing levels on Care Compare in January 2022, using PBJ data since 2016. These turnover and weekend measures will be added to the Five-Star rate in July 2022. ▼
Skilled nursing facilities must immediately verify PBJ employee ID linking and audit weekend staffing hours, as inaccuracies will appear publicly on Care Compare and directly affect Five-Star staffing domain ratings beginning July 2022.
Also facilities using UKG/Kronos impacted by the December 2021 ransomware attack received CMS leniency on the February 14, 2022 PBJ deadline but must comply with revised submission requirements by March 31, 2022.
QSO Memo 22-08-NH
Technical Users’ Guide – January 2022
To Advance Information on Quality of Care, CMS Makes Nursing Home Staffing Data Available
As part of its commitment to improve transparency and help families and caregivers find the best quality of nursing home care for their loved ones, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin posting for the first time ever, staff turnover rates and weekend staff levels for nursing homes on the Medicare.gov Care Compare website today. Posting this new information will not create any additional reporting requirements for nursing homes. CMS is using the same data that facilities have been reporting since 2016, as part of the Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) program.
— Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, January 26, 2022
Consumers Are Getting New Information About Nursing Home Staffing But Need More
With nursing homes and other long-term care facilities desperately short of nurses and aides, it is more important than ever for consumers to know about staffing levels, quality, and turnover. CMS also has begun reporting data on turnover rates of nurses and administrators. This information is valuable for consumers, but it is not enough.
— Forbes, February 03, 2022
New Staffing Measures Posted to Care Compare
Three staff turnover and two weekend staffing measures have been added to Care Compare. All measures are derived from Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) data. National averages at publication: RN Turnover = 49.8%; Total Nurse Turnover = 51.6%; Administrator Turnover = 1.1; Weekend Total Nurse HPRD = 3.26; Weekend RN HPRD = 0.48.
— Provider Magazine, February 02, 2022
‘Tone Deaf’: Posting of More Staffing and Turnover Data Starts
Nursing home staff turnover rates and weekend staffing levels can now be viewed publicly on the Care Compare website, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Wednesday.
The decision, though well-intentioned, could not have come at a worst time for many nursing homes who are already struggling with severe staffing shortages exacerbated by the pandemic, many provider advocates say.
“While we support transparency and agree that staffing hours and turnover metrics are important, more reporting will not solve this issue,” the American Health Care Association said in a statement Wednesday. “The addition of these metrics on Care Compare when we are in the middle of the worst labor shortage the nursing home sector has ever faced is tone deaf.”
— McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, January 26, 2022
Technical Users’ Guide for the Care Compare Nursing Home Updates
On January 14, 2022, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updated the Technical Users’ Guide for the Care Compare Nursing Home Five-Star Quality Rating System. While this information will be publicly reported starting in January, it will not be used in the Five-Star Quality Rating System until July 2022.
Here is what you need to know about the changes.
— Blue & Co., LLC, January 25, 2022
Tips for the PBJ Pro: Are You Ready for Staff Turnover Reporting?
CMS kicked off the new year with more PBJ reporting disclosures. In a letter released January 7, CMS announced that it will begin posting new PBJ metrics to the Medicare.gov Care Compare website:
- Weekend staffing — the level of total nurse and registered nurse (RN) staffing on weekends over a quarter
- Staff turnover — the percent of nursing staff and number of administrators that stopped working at the nursing home over a 12-month period
- Detailed staffing data — employee-level staffing data
These additions are not unexpected after several high-profile reports published last year. However, news that CMS would immediately begin posting this data to the Care Compare website in January 2022 — and incorporate the measures into the Five-Star Staffing rating in July 2022 — caught many by surprise.
— SimpleLTC, January 11, 2022
CMS Going Public with Facility Turnover, Weekend Staffing Data
he Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services late Friday announced that it will begin posting nursing home staff turnover rates and weekend staffing levels on the consumer-facing Medicare Care Compare site this month.
The same information will then be incorporated into the public Five-Staring rating system in July. The moves intensify pressure on providers that are facing a historic workforce shortage with no clear end in sight.
“Staffing in nursing homes has a substantial impact on the quality of care and outcomes residents experience,” CMS said in a memo announcing its decision to add the turnover rates and weekend levels to staffing averages that have been included for a decade.
The additional information “further enhances the information available to consumers, residents, and families to help support their healthcare decisions and incentivizes quality improvement among nursing homes,” the agency said.
— McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, January 10, 2022
Next Quarterly Payroll-Based Journal Data Submission Due by May 15th
PBJ submissions have been the basis for calculating the staffing domain of the Five-Star Quality Rating System for several years, and they are now being used to compute staff turnover and weekend staffing rates currently being displayed on Nursing Home Compare. Only data that are successfully submitted by the deadline are used in Five-Star calculations, and inaccurate or missing submissions can result in a home being assigned a single star for the staffing domain for one quarter.
— LeadingAge New York, 2022
Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG), a software used by SNFs for PBJ submission, was the victim of a ransomware attack on December 11, 2021. CMS announced it will not downgrade affected facilities that miss the February 14, 2022 PBJ submission deadline or submit incomplete information. Facilities will not be penalized for missing data from December 11–December 31, 2021.
— Celtic Consulting, February 03, 2022
