Home Health & Hospice Week

CMS plans to post disputed survey citations on Care Compare.

If you’re wondering what the future of compliance enforcement looks like for home health and hospice agencies, take a look at new developments for skilled nursing facilities.

For example: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services “plans to take a new step to increase the transparency of nursing home information by publicly displaying survey citations that facilities are disputing,” CMS says in a Jan. 18 release about nursing home safety. “Currently, when a facility disputes a survey deficiency, that deficiency is not posted to Care Compare until the dispute process is complete,” which can take 60 days or longer, CMS says.

“While the number of actual deficiencies under dispute is relatively small, they can include severe instances of non-compliance such as Immediate Jeopardy (IJ) citations,” CMS continues. “Displaying this information while it is under dispute can help consumers make more informed choices when it comes to evaluating a facility,” CMS concludes. “This new information will begin appearing on Care Compare on January 25, 2023.”

SNFs will get one break. “While the citations will be publicly displayed, they will not be included in the Five-Star Quality Rating calculation until the dispute is complete,” CMS details.

Another example: The HHS Office of Inspector General has added a Work Plan item on SNFs’ Special Focus Facility program. “In October 2022, CMS updated the SFF program to reduce the amount of time a nursing home spends as an SFF and increase the number of nursing homes that go through the program,” the OIG notes. “This study will evaluate CMS’ and state survey agencies’ implementation of the SFF program, including implementation of the October 2022 updates.”

CMS plans to propose a similar Special Focus Program (SFP) for poor-performing hospices in the 2024 rulemaking cycle next year (see HHHW, Vol. XXXI, No. 27).