"Nursing Home Errors Not Penalized"
May 19, 2006
A government watchdog group reported Wednesday that Medicare often fails to penalize nursing homes that are prone to error and jeopardize patient safety.
According to the Health and Human Services Department, Medicare should have terminated the contracts of 55 nursing homes between 2000 and 2002. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, however, did not end 30 of the 55 contracts as required.
Medicare agency officials reported a reluctance to relocate nursing home residents in cases where they thought the facility would eventually rectify its problems and come into compliance – a position putting the agency at odds with federal law.
Senator Charles Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said, “I’m sympathetic to the argument that termination would displace residents. But residents in immediate jeopardy at a nursing home need to be somewhere safer. They’re most vulnerable to abuse and neglect.”
CMS official Mark McClellan said that significant improvements in enforcement of nursing home compliance were made shortly after the review ended in 2002.
However, investigators found that the 30 nursing homes that went without penalty were later referred by states for federal action because of continued problems.
An additional penalty nursing homes are subject to for failure to come into compliance with federal regulations is denial of payment for new admissions. The government failed to deny such payment in 28 percent of 706 cases subject to this penalty.
“Termination has to be real and enforced, or troubled nursing homes may have no other incentive to clean up their act,” said Grassley.
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