The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will make changes in April to its Nursing Home Compare website, an online database used by consumers to compare nursing homes nationwide.
The changes are required by the Affordable Care Act and will occur in two phases.
On April 23, CMS will:
- Make it easier for consumers to file complaints about nursing homes with state survey agencies by adding links to state complaint websites and making the phone and fax numbers of those agencies more prominent.
- Make the consumer rights section more prominent, offering clear definitions of "resident" and "consumer rights" and providing information on how consumers may take action if they feel their rights have been violated. The consumer rights section will also include information on the Long-Term Care Ombudsman program, as well as information on selecting a nursing home.
- Freeze quality measure data and the five star quality measure ratings for six months. Current quality measure data will be retained until October. New quality measure data is expected to be ready early in 2012.
[See related story: National Quality Forum posts measures for nursing homes]
On July 21, CMS will change the Nursing Home Compare website to show the number of substantiated complaints received for each nursing home and the number of enforcement actions that have been levied, particularly civil money penalties and denials of payment for new admissions.
CMS intends to evaluate the website systematically. The organization will solicit comments from visitors and stakeholders. In the future, the website will undergo revision based on the evaluations of the solicited comments.