cms nursing home compare family councils

The groups argued that the icon gave the wrong impression - the visual urges consumers to avoid a facility altogether rather than investigate it further, they said - and didn’t account for facilities having taken corrective action after a citation. “I just think we do need something that’s startling enough to get people’s attention.”īut the warning drew complaints from the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and LeadingAge, two nursing-home industry associations. “Abuse is just a persistent and pervasive problem in nursing homes,” Grant said. It also serves as an important incentive for nursing homes to examine their policies and procedures and work to prevent, respond to, and report abuse and neglect, she told MarketWatch. Robyn Grant, the director of public policy and advocacy at the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, said she thought the new icon would serve to grab public attention. “While fewer than 5 percent of the more than 15,000 nursing homes participating in Medicare and Medicaid will be subject to the icon, CMS nevertheless urges all providers to focus on preventing abuse.” “Our new abuse icon helps patients make the best choices for their care, incentivizing nursing homes to compete on quality,” CMS administrator Seema Verma said in a statement emailed to MarketWatch. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that 760 of the database’s 15,262 Medicaid- and Medicare-certified facilities - nearly 5% - had been marked as such. CMS said that the symbol, updated monthly, is meant to supplement its five-star rating system and help consumers “develop a more complete understanding of a facility’s quality.”

The icon, a white hand within a red circle, appears for facilities cited in the past year for abuse that led to harm of a resident and/or those cited in each of the past two years for abuse that could potentially have led to a resident’s harm.

Cms nursing home compare family councils