CMS Survey & Certification Letter
MEMO NUMBER: 17-45-NH
PUBLISHED: September 25, 2017
CMS LISTING: Survey & Certification Letter 17-45
In this September 2017 memorandum 17-45-NH CMS provide new information in three specific areas.
Public Use Files
To ensure transparency of the data submitted, CMS will begin posting data for viewing by LTC facilities, stakeholders, or the general public. The PBJ public use file will be available at at https://data.cms.gov/ beginning November 1, 2017.
Posted data will include the total number of hours submitted for nursing services job categories (e.g., registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, and nurse aides) for each day in the quarter, in addition to each facility’s census for each day in the quarter as calculated using minimum data set (MDS) submissions.
Nursing Home Compare Icons
The Nursing Home Compare website indicates whether providers have submitted data by the required deadline, and if providers have submitted, complete, incomplete, or inaccurate data. A new icon system is introduced – CMS uses icons to indicate the status of each facility’s latest submission:
- A green icon is used to indicate that a facility has submitted complete data by the deadline
- Conversely, a grey icon is used to indicate that a facility has submitted incomplete or inaccurate data
Employee IDs
CMS intends to calculate rates of tenure and turnover using each employee’s unique identifier (ID). However they are seeing occasions where a facility needs to change the unique employee ID of its staff. Therefore CMS is providing a method for facilities to link an old employee ID with a new one.