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July 18, 2017

New Report Shows Decline in Skilled Nursing Facility Deficiencies; Staffing Rate Still Lower Than Recommended

Kaiser Family Foundation published a new report entitled "Nursing Facilities, Staffing, Residents and Facility Deficiencies."  The report uses data from the On-line Survey, Certification, and Reporting (OSCAR) system and Survey Provider Enhanced Reports to provide insight on recent trends in skilled nursing facilities.  The report showed that deficiencies declined from 2009-2013 then increased only slightly between 2013 and 2015.  From 2011 to 2013, the percentage of nursing facilities with no deficiencies increased from 7% to 8% but then dropped to 7% again in 2015.  The most common deficiencies included infection control, accident environment, food sanitation, quality of care and pharmacy consultation.  Nursing home staffing levels increased from 3.9 hours per resident day in 2009 to 4.1 hours in 2015.  However, that staffing level still falls below what many experts recommend for the highest quality of care of residents.  In an article for The Gerontologist, researchers recommended 4.55 hours per resident day.  For more information, read the article in McKnight's or read the whole report here.

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CMS Issues Memo on Revised CMP Policies

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a memo revising civil money penalty (CMP) policies and the CMP analytic tool. CMPs are an enforcement remedy used to quickly return facilities to sustained compliance and to prevent noncompliance in the future.  CMS has made changes related to the timing of noncompliance and surveys and has revised the CMP analytic tool to increase national consistencies in imposing CMPs.  Revised areas include past noncompliance; per instance CMP as the default for noncompliance that existed before the survey; per day CMP as the default for noncompliance existing during and after the survey; revisit timing and review of high CMPs.  Read the memo from CMS here and the CMP Analytic Tool User's Guide here.

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New Legislation Could Mean Tax Credit for Family Caregivers

Last Thursday, AARP and The Hill co-sponsored an event titled The Cost of Caring: Family Caregivers and Tax Reform with Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), Congressman Dan Donovan (R-NY), and Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM). The discussion covered bipartisan efforts currently underway in Congress to provide a tax credit to working family caregivers. The Credit for Caring Act would provide a new non-refundable federal tax credit of up to $3,000 to family caregivers to help address the financial challenges of caregiving and help working family caregivers. Currently, more than 40 million Americans provide unpaid care to family members and relatives to help them live independently at home and avoid more expensive institutional care. This support, ranges from everyday chores to complex medical tasks, and is often provided while juggling work and raising families. The unpaid value for care provided by family members is estimated to be $470 billion per year.  The Credit for Caring Act would be the first step in supporting these family caregivers.

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Regulatory Accountability Act Would Make Rulemaking More Difficult

Last Thursday, the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards held a press briefing highlighting the harmful provisions contained in the Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA). The RAA revises the Administrative Procedure Act to add dozens of new requirements that all agencies must satisfy before issuing protective safeguards.  These additional requirements would place more burden upon agencies and deter them from issuing necessary protections for long-term care consumers, like nursing home residents.  The needs of long-term care consumers are ever-changing, and agencies like the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) play a key role in protecting these consumers and addressing their needs.  The enactment of the RAA would put the future health and safety of nursing home residents, guaranteed by the revised federal nursing home regulations, at risk.

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Spotlight on Resources

The Consumer Voice and the National Ombudsman Resource Center (NORC) have a multitude of resources available online covering a wide range of long-term care topics.  Visit the Consumer Voice website and the NORC website to explore all the available resources.  Take a look at this week's highlighted resource:

Nursing Homes Need More Staff! - This consumer fact sheet provides information on the dangers of insufficient staffing in nursing homes and information on the recommended staffing levels.

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In this Issue

New Report Shows Decline in Skilled Nursing Facility Deficiencies; Staffing Rate Still Lower Than Recommended

CMS Issues Memo on Revised CMP Policies

New Legislation Could Mean Tax Credit for Family Caregivers

Regulatory Accountability Act Would Make Rulemaking More Difficult


Spotlight on Resources


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