PBJ Reporting Status Added to Nursing Home Compare
With the May 15th deadline for submitting payroll data for the period of Jan. 1, 2017 through March 31, 2017 closing in, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has added an icon to the Nursing Home Compare website indicating whether a home has submitted staffing data for the most recent submission cycle. While the data submitted through the Payroll Based Journal (PBJ) system is not yet being used as the basis for the staffing measure in the 5-Star rating system, CMS does intend to use PBJ data for this purpose in 2018.
CMS is not yet imposing any sanction for those homes that are not meeting the submission deadline. However, starting after this submission cycle, providers who have not submitted any data for two consecutive deadlines (May 15th and Feb. 14th) will have their overall and staffing star ratings suppressed (i.e., removed) in Nursing Home Compare until data is received. CMS is also exploring using MDS data to calculate facility census instead of requiring homes to report month-end census in the PBJ submission.
CMS reminds providers that once a facility uploads its data file, it needs to check its final Validation Report, which can be accessed in the Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reporting (CASPER) folder, to verify that the data was successfully submitted. It may take up to 24 hours to receive the Validation Report, so providers must allow for time to correct any errors and resubmit, if necessary. Please note that the monthly Nursing Home Compare Provider Preview, which is available in the facility's CASPER folder, now includes analyses of the staffing data submitted by the Feb. 14th deadline.
The Survey and Certification letter is available here. Information about minor changes in reporting requirements and links to the PBJ Manual are available here.
Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841