During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has fined 218 retirement home more than $176 million for the most severe infection control offenses that put citizens in “instant jeopardy,” conditions CMS believes are likely to seriously injure or kill them.
According to MedPage Today‘s analysis of the most recent federal data, nursing homes with a few of the highest charges since January include the Pennwood Nursing and Rehab Center in Pennsylvania ($983,840), Life Care Center of St. Louis in Missouri ($495,900), Brenham Nursing and Rehab Center in Texas ($427,000), and Riverside Healthcare Center in Georgia ($384,199).
Click here for a list of nursing homes that were fined
” To be required to consider citations and charges which will draw from funds required to continue the work of combating this infection seems to be an unsuitable usage of our resources,” stated Brooke Ladner, senior vice president of business development at Regency Integrated Health Solutions, which manages Brenham. The business is appealing the penalty.
” Given that the onset of the pandemic, the facility has actually followed rapidly changing standards at the federal, state and regional levels to safeguard its homeowners and staff,” she included.
More than 91,000 citizens and personnel of long-lasting care facilities have died after contracting COVID-19– about 40%of the total deaths in the U.S., according to a Kaiser Household Foundation analysis In May through October, weekly COVID-19 cases among homeowners and staff have increased almost four-fold in hot spot states, University of Chicago researchers reported earlier this month
Also considering that January, CMS pointed out another 66 nursing homes with infection control infractions at the immediate-jeopardy intensity level. Authorities decreased to explain whether this group would likewise be punished.
Click here for a table showing nursing home fines by state
CMS fines facilities based upon the variety of days the offense continues or on a “per-instance” basis that doesn’t take duration into account. Out of 218 instant jeopardy offenses, 183 got per-diem charges totaling $168 million, balancing $91,987 The staying 43 received per-instance charges totaling $727,400, or an average of $16,916 CMS officials would not discuss why some retirement home were positioned in either category or why some received both sort of penalties.
Annoyed by repeated offenses of infection control requirements throughout the pandemic, CMS raised the charge amounts and announced a crackdown on outright transgressors in August. The hard-line method doesn’t seem to have produced the desired results.
Market representatives argue that fines are not the best way to enhance infection control, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Advocates for locals and their households, on the other hand, state the fines are an inadequate deterrent.
In addition to policing assisted living home, CMS has actually taken a softer technique with a new, free infection control training program focusing on COVID-19 That strategy has gotten a lukewarm reaction. After 3 months, only 14%of the country’s 15,400 facilities have actually finished that training, CMS revealed last week
In a tweet last week, CMS Administrator Seema Verma stated “with COVID-19 cases increasing across the nation and infection control being a major problem, it’s frustrating that more nursing homes have not trained their staff.”
The impact of the charges has been cushioned by $20 billion in federal funding, free PPE and other materials, testing devices, as well as technical assistance.
Asked if the firm’s double roles send a combined message, Verma said no.
” What we’re informing retirement home is that we’re going to support you,” Verma stated throughout an unique interview with MedPage Today shortly after revealing the instant jeopardy fines in August.
” However if we discover repeat offenses, we have a statutory obligation” to implement health and safety policies, she stated, demanding the increased fines.
” What we want to do is always deal with a nursing home to assist and we wish to support them. But when nursing houses are over and over again non-compliant, that [fine] is one tool in our tool kit and one that we will utilize when proper,” Verma said.
Nursing home agents counter that fines only contribute to the challenges presented by the pandemic.
” When we focus exclusively on penalizing service providers with fines, this does not help the citizens, fails to resolve the underlying concerns, and takes away precious resources needed to make improvements,” stated David Gifford, primary medical officer at the American Health Care Association, whose members offer care to about one million seniors in some 14,000 centers.
” Excessive fines risk of pushing assisted living home on the financial brink to closure, uprooting the citizens, their family members and the personnel,” Gifford stated. “Nursing homes currently face chronic Medicaid underfunding, leading to less resources for client care.”
” We do not excuse poor care, nor do we oppose care oversight and policies,” said Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, representing not-for-profit providers of aging services, including retirement home. “Rather, we advocate for a collective method with CMS and property surveyors, with a focus on constant improvement.”
However partnership is not what a regulatory company is supposed to do, stated Toby Edelman, senior policy attorney for the Center for Medicare Advocacy, who has studied enforcement of federal retirement home requirements “Congress wanted to have a system of enforcement” when it passed the 1987 Nursing Home Reform Act, she said.
To be an effective deterrent, fines must be greater than the cash conserved by the infraction, Edelman continued, referring to a recommendation of a landmark 1986 Institute of Medication report that prompted the legislation.
More than 3 years later on, the institute’s follower, the National Academy of Medicine, has formed a “Committee on the Quality of Care in Nursing Residences.” Its 17 members are conference this month to establish recommendations dealing with retirement home oversight and enforcement, to name a few concerns.
Contact Susan Jaffe at @susanjaffe or Jaffe.KHN@gmail.com
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