| CMS Succumbs to Pressure
to Include Individual Complaint Data on NH Compare Website
By Bee Becker
Beginning May 2002, CMS
has acquiesced to include individual complaint data to its Nursing Home
Compare Website. This data is far more valuable in determining a
facility's performance than the Annual Survey data or the newly touted
unaudited, facility-provided "Quality Indicators". My grateful thanks
to the efforts of Congressman Henry Waxman and Senator Chuck Grassley for
continuing to pursue this effort.
Scully says the additional
complaint data will be posted online in May
A pair of senior U.S. lawmakers
finally have gotten their answer from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services Administrator Thomas Scully:
His agency will be posting
thousands of substantiated nursing-home violations that have been confirmed
but have not been posted on the government's "Nursing Home Compare" Web
site.
The additional information
will be added in May, Scully said in a letter received April 16 by Sen.
Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), who had complained
about the missing information. They said that more than 25,000 violations
found after complaints were filed had not been factored in to "Nursing
Home Compare," a Web site used to assist consumers. The site currently
posts only findings from regularly scheduled annual inspections.
Grassley and Waxman wrote
to Scully about the missing information on the 3-year-old Web site on Feb.
21. They asked for it to be added within 30 days.
They have temporarily hosted
the extra information on the House Committee on Government Reform Web site.
http://www.mcknightsonline.com
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