PBJ News Category

CMS’ PBJ Policies

cms-monitor-nursing-home-performance
Nov 16 2023

‘Only the Beginning’: Staffing Mandate Assessments May Push Operators to the Brink

‘Only the Beginning’: Staffing Mandate Assessments May Push Operators to the BrinkBeyond minimum staffing requirements, operators may need to prepare for updated assessment requirements, which leaders say will be a “core” aspect of the mandate, along with the 24-hour registered nurse (RN)...
cms-crackdown-staffing
Nov 13 2023

Understanding Staffing Compliance Issues & Exemptions

News Digest: Proposed Rule Includes More than Minimum Staffing Lost in the uproar over minimum staffing requirements for RN's and CNA's are a number of additional provisions in CMS' Proposed Minimum Staffing Rule.  A delayed rollout and provisions for rural facilities are highlighted by CMS has...
comments-minimum-staffing-proposals
Nov 06 2023

Comments on Staffing Rule Pour in to CMS

News Digest: Overwhelming Response to CMS' Proposed Rule on Minimum Staffing The 60 day comment period for the Proposed Minimum Staffing Rule ended November 6, 2023.  AHCA and Leading Age associations led efforts to generate industry response.  Comments flooded in and extended into a public...
proposed-rule-snf-pps-2023
Nov 04 2023

Plans to Defeat CMS’ Proposed Minimums Rule

News Digest: Various Strategies Floated to Avoid Proposed Minimum Staffing Rule With widespread opposition to CMS' Proposed Rule, a variety of tactics are under consideration to overcome the potential regulations.  Both a Congressional over ride and legal challenge to the rule are being openly...
cms-launches-review-nursing-homes-regulation
Nov 02 2023

Congress Weighs in on Proposed Staffing Rule

News Digest: Legislative branch questions proposed executive rule Federal legislators in Congress vocally responded to CMS' proposed rule.  While CMS considers public comments and works on the Final Rule in 2024, the congressional push back can also provide clues to how Congress may intervene...
cms-changes-quality-rating-system
Sep 21 2023

CMS Updates Staffing & Turnover Measures

the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued updates to guidance on minimum health and safety standards that Long-Term Care (LTC) facilities (often called “nursing homes”) must meet to participate in Medicare and Medicaid. CMS also updated and developed new guidance in the State...
Nursing-Home-Residents-at-Risk-per-study
Sep 01 2023

President Biden Op-Ed Claims Nursing Homes are Putting Residents at Risk

News Digest: President Biden Claims Nursing Homes are putting residents at risk With the long anticipated announcement of first-of-their-kind minimum staffing rules, the volume is turned up to 10 across the industry.  Knowing the strong pushback and intense lobbying to come, President Biden took...
Nursing-Facility-Prospective-Payment-System-Proposed-Rule
Sep 01 2023

CMS Issues Proposed Minimum Staffing Rule

News Digest: CMS Issues Proposed New Minimum Staffing Rule Some predicted that the payroll-based journal program was intended to enable the creation of a minimum staffing requirement.  8 years after the PBJ program was launched, that prediction came true when CMS proposed a new rule to establish...
senate-staffing-cms-policy
Jun 01 2023

Congress weighs in on possible minimum staffing rules

News Digest: Congress Weighs in on possible minimum staffing rules CMS took its time between an early 2022 announcement of the INTENTION to create minmium staffing regulations until the Sept 1, 2023 announcement of the ACTUAL Proposed Minimum Staffing ruler.  As associations, providers, and...
counterintuitive-to-goal
Apr 14 2023

Minimum staffing requirement: Thank you?

Minimum staffing requirement: Thank you?“The only way to assure there is enough staff in a skilled nursing facility is to implement a minimum staffing requirement.” When you hear or read statements like this from a member of Congress, a staffer at CMS or the White House, or a well-intended...
Nursing-Homes-to-Resume-Reporting-Staffing-Data
Feb 21 2023

The Impact of the Public Health Emergency on Skilled Nursing Facilities

The Impact of the Public Health Emergency on Skilled Nursing FacilitiesDuring the PHE, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) used emergency powers to implement waivers to allow flexibilities related to the care and treatment of patients within all venues of care. [S]killed nursing...
CMS-ends-Blanket-Waiver
Jan 25 2023

Federal Bill Aims to Aid Nursing Home Labor Shortage with TNA Program Extension

Federal Bill Aims to Aid Nursing Home Labor Shortage with TNA Program ExtensionA bill that aims to address staffing shortages in nursing homes by allowing temporary nursing aides (TNAs) awaiting certification to remain in the workforce past typical time limits was reintroduced on Wednesday....
cms-intensifying-nursing-home-oversight
Dec 23 2022

CMS should be careful in what it asks for

CMS should be careful in what it asks for Those in the nursing home sector are worried a potential staffing mandate imposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services could be the ruination of a reeling sector. However, there is an argument to be made that such a move by CMS would be its...
pbj-added-special-focus-facility-program
Oct 30 2022

CMS to ‘Crack Down’ on Troubled Nursing Homes Through Special Focus Facility Program Changes

In its latest move to increase scrutiny of the skilled nursing industry, the Biden administration is toughening requirements for nursing homes that fall into its Special Focus Facilities (SFF) program. Specifically, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is making completion...
alarming-nurse-turnover-rates
Oct 06 2022

3 Nursing Home Legal Issues to Watch in 2022 and Beyond

As a flurry of regulations and mandates descend upon the nursing home sector, such changes could create legal obstacles, and suggest yet another difficult and onerous year for providers. Staffing mandates, the aftermath of the end of the public health emergency (PHE), Covid liability and the PREP...
comments-on-minimum-staffing-study
Aug 10 2022

CMS reveals differing opinions on minimum staffing approach

A study meant to underpin a new federal nursing home staffing minimum will last about seven months and end in December, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official said Thursday. That confirmation came during an Open Door Forum conference call Thursday, and amid a fierce, ongoing...
updated-state-survey-investigations-of-staffing
Jun 30 2022

CMS Issues Significant Updates to Improve the Safety and Quality Care for Long-Term Care Residents

the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued updates to guidance on minimum health and safety standards that Long-Term Care (LTC) facilities (often called “nursing homes”) must meet to participate in Medicare and Medicaid. CMS also updated and developed new guidance in the State...
proposed-rule-snf-pps-2023
Apr 30 2022

CMS Releases Skilled Nursing Facility PPS Proposed Rule for FY23

CMS is also seeking feedback on including a Nursing Home Staff Turnover measure in the VBP program. The measure uses data from the CMS payroll-based journal system and reports annual turnover for nurses.

state-of-snfs-today
Mar 28 2022

State of Skilled Nursing Facilities Today, Planning for the Future

What are the four key findings and what can nursing home leaders do today to put themselves on the path of recovery? Some of the answers include strategic planning, operational assessments, and self-evaluation. Nursing facilities should work now to determine changes that can be made – clinically,...
proposed-legislation-minimum-staffing
Sep 21 2021

U.S. Bill Would Require More Staffing And Curtail Arbitration In Nursing Homes

Nursing homes would face minimum staffing requirements and a prohibition on pre-dispute arbitration agreements, among other significant potential changes included in legislation introduced last week by a group of Democratic senators.

cms-updates-five-star-ratings
Nov 30 2020

CMS Announces Updates to Five Star Quality Rating System

CMS announced on December 4 that the Five Star Quality Rating system will resume all updates with the January 2021 refresh. Due to the public health emergency (PHE) first issued in March 2020, the 3 domains of the rating system had previously been held constant at varying times throughout the past...
pbj-reporting-back-to-normal
Jun 30 2020

CMS announces end of emergency blanket data waiver for nursing homes

Federal officials said Friday that they are ending an emergency blanket waiver intended to reduce administrative burden on nursing homes amid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. The Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) said that effective August 14, nursing homes nationwide will again...
nursing-home-data-for-ppe-decisions
Apr 30 2020

CMS Releases Nursing Home Staffing, Census Data to Help States Make PPE and Testing Decisions

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday released a public database of staffing and resident counts for nearly 15,000 nursing homes, with the goal of potentially helping states make more informed decisions about the distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) amid...
CMS-Focuses-on-Enforcement
Feb 20 2020

CMS Focuses on Enforcement in Latest Statement on SNF Policies

n a blog post on the Trump administration’s strategies for ensuring safety and quality in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), focused on enhanced enforcement efforts to strengthen oversight of facilities. On the...
cms-proposes-rop-changes
Jul 31 2019

CMS Proposes a Host of Changes to Nursing Home Requirements for Participation

the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) on July 18 released a proposed rule that the agency estimates will achieve annual savings of nearly $644 million for providers. The agency proposes a host of changes to the revised Medicare Requirements for Participation (“Requirements for...
Senate-Finance-Committee-nursing-homes
Mar 08 2019

Senate Finance Committee hearing focuses on nursing home abuse

Issues of staffing, quality and funding, particularly Medicaid reimbursement, were addressed by David Grabowski, Ph.D., a professor at the Harvard Medical School and David Gifford, M.D., who heads up quality and regulatory affairs for the American Health Care Association.

house-hearing-pbj-nursing-home-safety
Sep 06 2018

House Hearing Focuses on Nursing Home Safety and Quality

This week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (E&C) Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing entitled “Examining Efforts to Ensure Quality of Care and Resident Safety in Nursing Homes.” The purpose of the hearing was to explore the roles of the Centers for Medicare...
cms-pbj-data-quests
Jul 27 2018

The PBJ quality quest

In McKnights, Don Feige observes how CMS continues their quest to create a standardized, consistent measure of staffing across the industry by closing loopholes and clarifying gray areas.

pbj-five-star-calculations
Apr 30 2018

Nursing Home Staffing Measures Transitioning to PBJ Data

Leading Age NY informs its members how CMS is shifting the data source used to calculate the staffing measures of the nursing home quality rating system from self reported 671 data to auditable PBJ reports.

PBJ-data-files-to-be-made-public
Sep 30 2017

PBJ data goes public

In a memo published earlier this week, CMS announced that they will begin posting PBJ public use files for viewing by LTC facilities, stakeholders, and the general public at http://data.cms.gov/ on November 1, 2017.

pbj-gotchas
Jul 30 2016

PBJ reporting begins

In McKnights, Don Feige describes some of the trickier parts of the PBJ reporting rules that providers need to either validate or make changes to systems and processes to ensure staffing data is PBJ compliant

prepared-for-pbj-submission
Mar 30 2016

Getting prepared for the new payroll-based journal reporting requirements

Mandatory compliance with the new Centers for Medicare & Medicated Services (CMS) payroll-based journal reporting (PBJ) requirements begins July 1, 2016. Are you prepared? Whether it’s reaching out to your payroll or timekeeping vendors to supply the data, working with internal IT...
CMS-Requires-Payroll-Based-Journal-Electronic-Staffing-Data-Submission
Dec 30 2015

The Start of PBJ Practice Data Submission

CMS encouraged providers to use the voluntary submission period beginning October 1, 2015 to test their PBJ data submission processes. The mandatory filing period begins July 1, 2016.

cms-announces-payroll-based-journal-system
Apr 30 2015

CMS announces a new Payroll-Based Journal system

CMS will require that staffing and census data be collected on a quarterly basis, and that the submitted data is both timely and accurate. The data will be collected for each fiscal quarter. Staffing data includes the number of hours worked by each staff member each day within the quarter, and...

PBJ News by Topic

All Topics
129
CMS' PBJ Policies
34
PBJ news in the topic includes CMS' PBJ Policies
Five Star Staffing Ratings
19
PBJ news in the topic includes Five Star Staffing Ratings
Minimum Staffing
50
PBJ news in the topic includes Minimum Staffing HPRDD
Nursing HPRD & Turnover
43
PBJ news in the topic includes Nursing Hours per resident day & staff turnover and RN nursing hours
PBJ Audits by CMS
6
PBJ news in the topic includes PBJ Audits by CMS
Research Studies of PBJ Data
32
PBJ news in the topic includes Research Studies of PBJ Data
Rules for PBJ Reporting
19
PBJ news in the topic includes CMS Rules for PBJ Reporting and submission
State Mandates & Medicaid
11
PBJ news in the topic includes state nursing homes staffing mandates or state Medicaid funding for staffing
Survey & FTags for Staffing
7
PBJ news in the topic Survey & FTags for Staffing