Prune
Juice Follies Premiere at Lions Gate Hotel
Keeping New Year Weight Loss Resolutions
Senior Health: Seniors Often Vulnerable to Cold Weather Conditions
Your Money Matters: Legislature Does Not Protect Investors
Klockwork: Ridiculous Ads Try to Redefine Manhood
Ken's Corner: Remembering Joe Marty of the Sacramento Solons
Feds Examine Sanctions Against Sub-Standard Nursing Homes
By
Michael A. Piekarz
Staff Writer
A
new U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report analyzing
the federal government’s use of sanctions on nursing homes
whose negligent practices are found to be harming residents has drawn
the attention of lawmakers seeking to add teeth to regulations designed
to protect vulnerable older Americans.
In the report, the GAO analyzes the use of the federal government’s temporary
management sanction, which allows temporary replacement of the administration
of a troubled nursing home in order to rapidly correct severe safety and quality
deficiencies that are jeopardizing residents’ health.
The GAO action was requested by several federal legislators who have co-sponsored
the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act — a bill intended to
improve nursing home care for the nation’s graying population by increasing
consumer information and government regulation of the nursing home industry.
The bill also provides incentives for nursing homes to improve care on their
own volition.
“It is not enough to make enforcement tools available to nursing home regulators,” said
Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. “We
need to make sure they are being used effectively.”
“The GAO report highlights the effectiveness of temporary management sanctions
in ensuring that nursing homes meet CMS quality requirements,” said Henry
A. Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “We
must ensure that the most vulnerable of our population – the elderly and
the disabled – are safe and receive the quality of care they deserve.”
To prepare the report, the GAO gathered information from every state in which
the federal temporary management sanction had been put into action from 2003
through 2008.
The GAO found that use of the sanction has been very rare during the period studied.
The temporary management sanction was applied only 14 times to nursing homes
in 10 states.
Through analyses of facility compliance histories and interviews with state officials,
the GAO then identified the most common instances in which the sanction was used
and whether it was effective in those instances.
The report also found obstacles regarding use of the sanction. For example, state
inspectors reported that in some cases they were unable to locate a temporary
management company that could step in immediately and seamlessly take over the
operations of a home in crisis.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) — which has jurisdiction
over the nation’s more than 16,000 nursing homes — issued comments
agreeing with the GAO’s assessment that the federal government can do more
to provide guidance and best practices to states and regional offices that would
help them implement the temporary management sanction more effectively.
The GAO also suggested that CMS work with states to develop a list of temporary
managers who are qualified to step in on short notice and mitigate crises of
care at nursing homes.
“When nursing homes are neglecting seniors, it’s the job of the government
to step in,” stated Congressman Pete Stark, D-Calif., chairman of the House
Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. “The recommendations in this study
will help CMS more effectively sanction shoddy nursing homes, and I am reassured
that CMS agrees that more can be done. I look forward to seeing steps by the
Agency to improve the quality of nursing home care.”
The GAO report included a CMS announcement of its intention to form a multi-jurisdictional
state-federal workgroup to examine a range of strategies to provide incentives
for nursing homes to maintain long-term compliance after they have been disciplined
for poor care.
At present, many marginal nursing home facilities repeatedly waiver in and out
of compliance by doing just enough to address a sanction in the short-term without
taking steps to make lasting improvements in quality.
“The GAO lays out some really helpful recommendations here, including the
creation of a list of best practices on how states can implement temporary management
sanctions,” Sen. Kohl analyzed. “I commend CMS for being receptive
to these suggestions and for exploring taking further steps to ensure both short
and long-term compliance.”
This page and its contents ©2009
Metropolitan News Company, Inc.
