CMS, SENATOR KOHL RELEASE FULL LIST OF NATION'S WORST NURSING HOMES

WASHINGTON - Today U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) joined the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Acting Administrator Kerry Weems in making public the entire list of nursing homes designated as Special Focus Facilities (SFFs).  Last November, Administrator Weems announced that a partial list of SFFs would be released at an Aging Committee hearing on nursing home reform. This full release of the list is a follow-up to the initial release .

 

"We have been in discussions with CMS for many months now, learning about the history of the Special Focus Facilities program, reviewing its processes, and considering ways in which the program can be improved and possibly expanded," Chairman Kohl said during a telephone briefing with reporters. "We both agree that this program is very worthwhile. I want to applaud CMS for moving toward increased transparency of this program in a responsible, methodical way."

 

Senator Kohl also announced his plan to introduce the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) this Thursday. The bill would give consumers better access to accurate information on nursing homes, including the results of government inspections, the number of staff employed at a home, who provides direct care, and information about the home's ownership. Disclosing the SFF program participants, considered to be among the worst of the worst nursing homes in the country, is also required by the bill.

 

The joint legislation also aims to strengthen the government's system of enforcement. Under the current system, some nursing homes that fail to provide consistently high-quality care can escape penalty while they slip in and out of compliance with federal regulations year after year. The bill will improve the ability of regulators address such homes in a timely fashion. Lastly, the legislation requires the federal government's website for nursing homes, Nursing Home Compare , to display accurate, timely information in a format that can be easily understood by consumers across the country.

 

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More information on the Special Focus Facility program and the FULL LIST of participating nursing homes can be found here:  http://www.cms.hhs.gov/CertificationandComplianc/Downloads/SFFList.pdf