Updates

Nursing Home Five-Star Quality Rating System Technical Users’ Guide

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) overhauled the methodology for the Staffing domain’s star rating calculations in the Five-Star Quality Rating System on Care Compare Effective July 27th. The staffing star ratings as well as the overall Five-Star rating changed and it’s important to understand why so as a provider you can be proactive and make process improvements.

The Five-Star Staffing domain is driven by the Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) electronic staffing data. NACs have an opportunity to help directors of nursing services (DNSs) understand the basics of why the facility’s staffing star rating or overall star rating may have changed.

To find out more about what it means and the impact the change may have on your facility, refer to the link above or the links below for more in-depth information.

Section 6: MDS 3.0 Nursing Home (NH) Provider Reports lists the available management reports and how to access and interpret them. Key reports to review include:

• The MDS 3.0 Missing OBRA Assessment report: determine whether you have missed a Discharge assessment or another assessment.

• The MDS 3.0 Roster report: identify discharged residents who are still on this report, you will need to do a Discharge assessment to ensure that the census is correct - having a late assessment is better than having that resident remain on the facility’s roster

Section 12: Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) Reports lists available management reports and how to access and interpret them.

Mark your calendar!

Denver (Region 8) will begin the iQIES Onboarding process

starting October 31 through November 11

Onboarding Schedule for MDS Transition to iQIES CMS is excited to announce that we are preparing to release the Internet Quality Improvement Evaluation System (iQIES) for Minimum Data Set (MDS) submission in early 2023. Although the MDS submission functionality will not be available immediately, we encourage Provider Security Officials (PSOs) to request access to iQIES as soon as possible, as doing so will allow for a smoother transition prior to the go live date. At a minimum, at least one PSO needs to be selected, but CMS highly recommends that at least two PSOs are designated so that there is a higher likelihood that there will be someone available to approve/reject iQIES access requests. Please reference the iQIES onboarding schedule below for the MDS transition to iQIES.

Follow these steps to register your Provider Security Official (PSO):

1. Identify at least one individual who will be the Provider Security Official (PSO).

2. Each individual will need to register for iQIES login credentials by creating an account in the HCQIS Access Roles and Profile (HARP) system at: https://harp.cms.gov/register

3. Set up MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) for your account and complete the Identify Proofing process.

4. Access iQIES using your HARP ID and password: https://iqies.cms.gov/

5. Initiate your Provider Security Official (PSO) role request using your provider CCN.

6. Once your request has been submitted AND approved, you will receive an email notification. At this point, you will have authority to approve/deny requests for iQIES access and role types.

iQIES Onboarding Process Quick Reference Guide Provider Security Official (PSO) Role

For more information on the Provider Security Official Role, please visit our: iQIES Quick Reference Guides/Job Aids