The Freeze Is Back On
On April 24th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued memorandum QSO-20-28-NH providing information regarding updates to the Five-Star Quality Rating System. Due to the changes that CMS made to the nursing home survey process in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the health inspection domain will be frozen as of the April 2020 refresh slated for April 29th. Any inspections held on or after March 4, 2020 will not be used to calculate the Five-Star rating. The staffing and quality measures domains, however, will not be frozen. Data from Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) and Minimum Data Set (MDS) submissions will be used to calculate the ratings since the data that will be used is from prior to the COVID-19 crisis. CMS will be monitoring data submissions and may reconsider future adjustments to the methodology to calculate the Five-Star ratings. Also included in the memo are the most up-to-date Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
Contact: Susan Chenail, schenail@leadingageny.org