HHS INFLATES CLAIMS
ABOUT ITS NURSING HOME QUALITY INITIATIVE

“The Bush Administration’s claims – that its Nursing Home Quality Initiative has empowered consumers with ‘objective measures’ that ‘let market forces work’ and that quality of care in nursing homes has improved nationwide as a result – are inflated and, at best, premature,” according to Toby S. Edelman of the Center for Medicare Advocacy.

Announced two years ago, the Nursing Home Quality Initiative publicly reports information from resident assessments as indications of nursing home quality called “performance measures.”  The 15 measures cover such areas as pain and pressure sores.  While the Administration reports that the measures demonstrate significant improvement in quality of care for residents on several of the measures, Ms. Edelman of the Center for Medicare Advocacy points out that the performance measures are self-reported data, with no audit to assure their validity or accuracy.   Concerns about the validity and reliability of assessment data and the quality indicators were identified by the General Accounting Office (now Government Accountability Office) when the Initiative was first introduced.  These concerns also prompted the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to create a special program – Data Assessment and Verification (DAVE) – to help facilities improve the accuracy of their assessments.

While the Administration touts its website “Nursing Home Compare,” the information published on the website can be conflicting and confusing for the public.  For example, a Rhode Island nursing facility, closed by the state in June 2004 for providing poor care, was still listed on the government’s website in September 2004.  Worse still, the facility was cited by the state survey agency with 20 deficiencies, compared with the statewide average of four, while its “performance measures” made the facility appear average or better than other facilities in the state.

The Center for Medicare Advocacy supports strengthening the public regulatory system, whose role under federal law is assuring that nursing facilities provide each resident with all care and services needed to achieve and maintain his or her highest possible functioning and quality of life.

© Copyright, Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc. 04/04/2008