CMS Announces More Details on Changes for Five Star Program

The QM facility ratings in the Five Star program are currently based on nine of the 18 publicly reported QMs. With the additional measures, the subset will be 11 of the 18 publicly reported measures. These newly reported measures are:

• Percent of Short-Stay Residents Who Newly Received an Antipsychotic Medication (N011.01); and
• Percent of Long-Stay Residents Who Received an Antipsychotic Medication (N031.02)

No changes in the evaluation specifications of these measures are anticipated, simply the way they are utilized for reporting will change. These measures are currently available in the CASPER quality measure report, and are available to surveyors to assist with the evaluation of care systems.

CMS is also working to develop some new QMs for public reporting over the next few years. Measures for “SNF rehospitalization” and “discharge to community” are a couple that are on the horizon. 

In addition, CMS will be changing the way that payroll data is reported to allow for a more comprehensive view of staffing. As required by the IMPACT Act, CMS will launch the development of a national electronic quarterly reporting system for payroll-based staffing data for all Medicare and Medicaid-participating nursing facilities. This is expected to be piloted in 2015 on a voluntary pilot basis initially in order to develop the system and get feedback from front-line caregivers and providers. The changes to the reporting for staffing data will do the following, according to officials:

• report payroll-based staffing levels directly to CMS on a quarterly basis without going through the survey process;
• collect “hours worked” data “at the staff member level”  - no wage or salary income data will be collected;
• track “starting and ending employment dates of employees;"
• require nursing facilities to designate who is responsible for the validity and accuracy of the submitted data; and
• have protections built in for confidentiality.

Contact: Michelle Synakowski, msynakowski@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8850.