Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new guidance for nursing home surveyors, offering more clarification for several components of the survey that aim to improve nursing home residents’ quality of life and environment. Under these new guidelines, nursing home surveys will be focused on key areas such as ensuring residents live with dignity, offering choices in care and services, accommodating the environment to each residents’ needs and preferences, and creating a more homelike environment with access to visitors.

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The news took the staff at Quality Care Health Center in Lebanon, Tennessee by surprise. The Tennessee Department of Health issued a ban on new admissions, claiming those at the home are in immediate jeopardy, according to News Channel 5.

The announcement was spurred by a recent state and Federal Center for Medicare-Medicaid Services inspection that found the center in violation of physician services, nursing services and medical records.

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Two senators have reintroduced legislation aimed at improving the quality of care in nursing homes.  The Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act,  reintroduced by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Herb Kohl (D-WI), would give consumers more information about the quality of care at nursing homes, provide the government with better tools to enforce high quality standards, and encourage nursing homes to improve on the care they provide, according to Trading Markets.

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How is it possible that it is only now becoming a requirement that nursing home facilities install life-saving sprinkler systems to help protect residents from fire? Up to this point, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) allowed older facilities that did not have these systems an exemption, allowing them to serve Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries despite the lack of this safety precaution. This week, the organization announced these facilities will have a five-year phase-in period, after which time they must have comprehensive sprinkler systems in place.

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This week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced plans for the establishment of a new ranking system for nursing home performance. Similar to rating systems that the public is familiar with in relation to products or facilities like restaurants and hotels, the new CMS system will rate nursing homes with a “star” system, with five stars being the best and one star the worst.

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