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Updated Feb. 2, 2022
CDC updated guidance to "enhance protection for healthcare personnel, patients, and visitors and to address concerns about potential impacts on the healthcare system given a surge in SARS-CoV-2 infections." Keep in mind, that updates will be refined as additional information becomes available to inform recommended actions. For more detail on the below topics, click on the above link.
- Recommended routine infection prevention and control (IPC) practices during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Recommended infection prevention and control (IPC) practices when caring for a patient with suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection
- Setting-specific considerations
April 2022 Revisions
CMS is implementing the planned, regular increases to the Quality Measure (QM) rating thresholds, increasing each rating threshold by one-half of the average improvement in QM scores since the last time the thresholds were set. These changes will be effective with the April 2022 refresh, with the average improvement determined from the period of April 2019 to January 2022.
MLN Special Edition - April 7, 2022
CMS is taking steps to phase out some temporary emergency declaration waivers that have been in effect throughout the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) all while continuing to protect nursing home residents’ health and safety by announcing guidance that will restore certain minimum standards for compliance with CMS requirements.
The waivers will end in two groups: one group of waivers will terminate 30 days from the issuance of this new guidance (5/7/2022), and the other group will terminate 60 days from issuance (6/7/2022). The timeframes will allow providers and state agencies time to adjust their operations to the reinstituted requirements.
CMS Proposed Rule Seeks Feedback on Staffing Standards and Health Equity
"In January, CMS began posting nursing home staff turnover rates (as well as weekend staff levels) on the Medicare.gov Care Compare website. The information will also be included in the star rating system starting in July 2022. The readily available information will help consumers better understand each nursing home facility’s staffing environment and also helps providers to improve the quality of care and services they deliver to residents.
The proposed rule also proposes the adoption of 3 new measures in the SNF VBP Program:
The Skilled Nursing Facility Healthcare-Associated Infections Requiring Hospitalization (SNF HAI) is an outcome measure that assesses SNF performance on infection prevention and management.
The Total Nursing Hours per Resident Day is a structural measure that uses auditable electronic data to calculate total nursing hours per resident each
The Adoption of the Discharge to Community – Post-Acute Care Measure for SNFs (DTC) is an outcome measure that assesses the rate of successful discharges to community from a SNF setting.
CMS is requesting stakeholder feedback on the role health equity plays in improving health outcomes and the quality of care in nursing homes. Specifically, CMS is seeking comments on how to arrange or classify measures in nursing home quality reporting programs by indicators of social risk to better identify and reduce disparities."
For a fact sheet on the FY 2023 SNF PPS proposed rule, please visit:
Beginning with the FY 2026 SNF VBP Program Year
In order to achieve an accurate census, it is not only imperative that assessments, including discharge assessment data, but that residents are assigned correct Resident Internal IDs. Providers must ensure that MDS items are entered correctly on each assessment as well as carefully monitor the Final Validation Report for any errors. The final validation report is generated upon MDS submission and will show any errors. In addition to the Final Validation Report, there are other CASPER reports such as the MDS Census Summary (returns resident count per day), MDS Census Detail (returns list of Resident Internal IDs counted per day), Admissions, Discharges, Duplicate Residents, Errors, and Daily Rosters, among others.
Full descriptions of these reports are available in Section 6 of the CASPER Reporting MDS Provider User’s Guide.
Information about Final Validation Reports and error messages in the reports is available in Sections 4 and 5 of the MDS 3.0 Provider User's Guide.
(CMS 4/13/2022)
Skilled Nursing Facilities are awarded an incentive payment based on their performance on the SNF 30-Day All-Cause Readmission Measure (SNFRM; NQF #2510). The SNFs performance is measured based on the rate of all-cause, unplanned hospital readmissions for SNF residents within 30 days of discharge from a prior hospital stay and is risk-adjusted for stay-level factors that include clinical and demographic characteristics.
Read to find out more information about SNF VBP and the impact it may have on your facility.
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