Published: July 2018
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Medicare has lowered its star ratings for staffing levels in 1 in 11 of the nation’s nursing homes — almost 1,400 of them — because they either had inadequate numbers of registered nurses or failed to provide payroll data that proved they had the required nursing coverage, federal records released last week show.

Medicare only recently began collecting and publishing payroll data on the staffing of nursing homes as required by the Affordable Care Act of 2010, rather than relying as it had before on the nursing homes’ own unverified reports.

The payroll records revealed lower overall staffing levels than homes had disclosed, particularly among registered nurses.

Rau, Jordan. “‘It’s Almost Like a Ghost Town.’ Most Nursing Homes Overstated Staffing for Years.” The New York Times, 7 July 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/health/nursing-homes-staffing-medicare.html.

Also published as:

“‘Like A Ghost Town’: Erratic Nursing Home Staffing Revealed Through New Records.” Kaiser Health News, 13 Jul. 2018, khn.org/news/like-a-ghost-town-erratic-nursing-home-staffing-revealed-through-new-records.