CMS Published Datasets Containing COVID-19 Impact on Nursing Home Compare

June 11th, 2020

CMS Announced Crack Down on Nursing Home Infection Controls (HealthCare Information Management)

CMS announced that they will be cracking down on nursing home infectious disease control violations.  They are increasing penalties for noncompliance with infection control to help prevent backsliding, improve accountability, and ensure prompt compliance.

Provisions under the CARES Act, allocate funding requiring states to perform on-site surveys of nursing homes with previous COVID-19 outbreaks and will be required to perform on-site surveys (within three to five days of identification) of any nursing home with new COVID-19 suspected.

CMS has tasked Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) to help nursing homes implement infection control best practices by providing technical assistance.

On an unprecedented move, CMS has required nursing homes to inform, residents, their families, and representatives of COVID-19 cases in their facilities since April 19,  2020. For the first time, nursing homes are required to report COVID-19 cases and deaths directly to the CDC on an ongoing basis as the result of CMS regulatory requirement issued on May 1, 2020.

CDC Data Show-casing COVID-19 Nursing Home Impacts.As of May 24, 2020, about 12,500 nursing homes – approximately 80 percent of the 15,400 Medicare and Medicaid nursing homes – had reported the required data to the CDC. These facilities reported over 60,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and almost 26,000 deaths. Of the nursing homes that reported data, approximately one in four facilities had at least one COVID-19 case, and approximately one in five facilities had at least one COVID-19 related death.  Early analysis shows that facilities with a one-star quality rating were more likely to have large numbers of COVID-19 cases than facilities with a five-star quality rating. CMS will take enforcement action against the nursing homes that have not reported data into the CDC as required under CMS participation requirements.

CMS post the underlying CDC-collected data on a link on Nursing Home Compare, click here.  T data allows the public to view general information of how COVID-19 has impacted nursing homes. The data will be searchable by facility name and will be downloadable so researchers and other stakeholders can perform their own in-depth analysis.  CMS will update the data weekly.   Access Link Here.