CMS Issues Updates to Nursing Home Surveyor Manual

(Nov. 26, 2024) The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released significant updates to the State Operations Manual that is used to guide nursing home surveys and compliance with federal Requirements of Participation. The revised Manual takes effect on Feb. 24, 2025.

The revisions clarify and expand upon prior guidance principally on a number of topics, including the use of psychotropic medications, validating and documenting schizophrenia diagnoses, transfer and discharge procedures, the prohibition on requiring third-party guarantors as a condition of admission, the consideration of health equity as part of the quality assurance (QAPI) process, and enhanced barrier precautions and COVID-19 infection prevention and vaccine education. In addition to providing additional detail regarding the existing standards, in several areas the revisions expand the types of citations likely to be imposed and the severity of those citations. For example, there is a greater emphasis on detecting psychosocial harm for purposes of categorizing deficiencies under the revised Manual. The new guidance also includes updates to critical element pathways which are appended to the recently released document.

LeadingAge National and LeadingAge NY are reviewing the updated Manual. We will provide a more detailed analysis in the near future.

More information is available here and here.

Contact: Karen Lipson, klipson@leadingageny.org