Provider Messaging Related to the Inaugural Release of Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP) Data on Nursing Home (NH) Compare

“The chairpersons of the Ambulance Open Door Forum have decided to cancel the call that was scheduled for January 6, 2016.  Instead, the call will be rescheduled for February 2016. We will notify you once the 2016 Ambulance Open Door Forum calendar is finalized.  Thank you for your participation and interest in the Ambulance Open Door Forum. We wish all of you a joyous holiday season and a prosperous and happy New Year.”

In accordance with Section 1899B(g)(1) of the Social Security Act, which requires CMS to provide for the public reporting of SNF provider performance on the quality measures, CMS is announcing the inaugural release of the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP) quality data on Nursing Home (NH) Compare.

Nursing Home Compare allows you to find and compare SNFs that are certified by Medicare and nursing homes that are certified by Medicaid. This website contains quality of resident care and staffing information for more than 15,000 nursing homes around the country, and will now additionally include SNF QRP quality data that can be used to compare SNF providers by their performance on important indicators of quality, such as the percentage of patients with new or worsening pressure ulcers, or the percentage of patients that experienced a fall and sustained a major injury. Specifically, the following five SNF QRP measures are now being displayed on the NH Compare site:

Assessment-based measures:

1. Percent of Residents or Patients with Pressure Ulcers that are New or Worsened (Short Stay) (National Quality Forum #0678)
2. Application of Percent of Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Patients With an Admission and Discharge Functional Assessment and a Care Plan That Addresses Function (NQF #2631)
3. Application of Percent of Residents Experiencing One or More Falls with Major Injury (NQF #0674)

Claims-based measures:

1. Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary-PAC SNF QRP
2. Discharge to Community-PAC SNF QRP

CMS has decided not to publish a 6th quality measure, Potentially Preventable 30-Day Post-Discharge Readmissions, at this time.   Additional time would allow for more testing to determine if there are modifications that may be needed both to the measure and to the method for displaying the measure. This additional testing will ensure that the future publicly reported measure is thoroughly evaluated so that Compare users can depend upon an accurate picture of provider quality.   While we conduct this additional testing, CMS will not post reportable data for this measure, including each SNF’s performance, as well as the national rate.

Visit the Nursing Home Compare to view the new SNF QRP quality data.

For more information, visit the CMS SNF Quality Public Reporting webpage and the CMS Newsroom.