CMS Issues S&C Letter

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued S&C letter 17-27, which provides additional information on the citing of Substandard Quality of Care (SQC) and clarifies the requirements on the notice of discharge and transfer.

A new definition of SQC was added to 42 CFR 488.301 by the Final Rule to reform the requirements for long term care facilities that went into effect on Nov. 28, 2016. There were no substantial or substantive changes to the content of what types of deficient practices would result in SQC; however, the regulatory citations to the relevant requirements have changed. The new definition reflects this general reorganization of the regulations. Also, some regulations may have been moved from their previous regulatory grouping to a new regulatory group.

Under Phase 2 of the implementation in the Final Rule, the affected regulatory requirements in the definition of SQC do not change. However, a new F-tag numbering system will be implemented in Phase 2, starting on Nov. 28, 2017. The F-tags affected will be spread across different regulatory groups, but the problem of having certain F-tags with both SQC and non-SQC regulations associated within them should be resolved.

The letter also clarifies the requirement to provide a copy of the notice of discharge and transfer to the Office of the Ombudsman. For resident-initiated transfer and discharge, sending a copy of the notice is not required. Facility-initiated transfers and emergency transfers still require notification to the Ombudsman's Office, but some timeframes for the notification have been relaxed.

Contact: Elliott Frost, efrost@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8832