CMS Replaces all Eight Care-Specific Websites with Single Website: Care Compare

Effective December 1, 2020, Care Compare replaces eight health care-specific websites, such as Nursing Home Compare and Hospice Compare.[1] Users of the new website, https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/, must type in the city or zip code and provider type to get information about specific health care providers. While the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that all information from the prior websites is available at Care Compare, the site’s uniform format looks different from the old sites and some information previously available on Nursing Home Compare may be difficult to find. In addition, CMS announced that on January 27, 2021, it will update publicly available nursing home information on surveys and quality measures, which had been frozen since March 2020.

Care Compare

Nursing Home Compare included links to focused infection control surveys and COVID-19-related data reported by nursing facilities to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Links to these sources of information are now on the bottom right-hand corner of Care Compare through a link called “What’s New?” 

To find information about Special Focus Facilities and candidates, users of Care Compare must now go to “resources and information” at the bottom of the Care Compare page, click on Nursing Homes, and then click on “View a list of nursing homes that have a history of poor care and may need increased oversight and enforcement” (which gets users to the Special Focus Facility website, https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/CertificationandComplianc/downloads/sfflist.pdf).

Updates on Nursing Home Information

Publicly available information on nursing homes has been frozen since March 2020, when CMS suspended standard and complaint surveys[2] and waived requirements that facilities report staffing information and resident assessment data (which are used to construct quality measures) to CMS.[3] In June, CMS reinstated the requirement that facilities report staffing information, with the second quarter in calendar year 2020.[4] In August, CMS instructed states to resume all surveys as soon as they had the resources to do so.[5] Many facilities apparently submitted assessment data during the reporting waiver. 

On December 4, CMS announced that it will resume calculating and reporting on Care Compare health inspections, incorporating information from focused infection control surveys, and quality measures.[6]

___________________________

[1] CMS, “Updates to the Nursing Home Compare website and Five Star Quality Rating System,” QSO 21-06-NH (Dec. 4, 2020), at https://www.cms.gov/tiles/document/qso-21-06-nh.pdf
[2] CMS, “Suspension of Survey Activities,” QSO-20-12-All (Mar. 4, 2020), https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-20-12-all.pdf; CMS, “Prioritization of Survey Activities,” QSO-20-20-All (Mar. 20, 2020), https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-20-20-allpdf.pdf
[3] CMS, “COVID-19 Emergency Declaration Blanket Waivers for Health Care Providers” (Mar. 28, 2020, updated Dec. 1, 2020), https://www.cms.gov/files/document/summary-covid-19-emergency-declaration-waivers.pdf
[4] CMS, “Changes to Staffing Information and Quality Measures Posted on the Nursing Home Compare website and Five Star Quality Rating System due to COVID-19 Public Health Emergency,” QSO 20-34-NH (Jun. 25, 2020), https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-20-34-nh.pdf
[5] CMS, “Enforcement Cases Held during the Prioritization Period and Revised Survey Prioritization,” QSO 20-35-ALL (Aug. 17, 2020), https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-20-35-all.pdf
[6] CMS, “Updates to the Nursing Home Compare website and Five Star Quality Rating System,” QSO 21-06-NH (Dec. 4, 2020), at https://www.cms.gov/tiles/document/qso-21-06-nh.pdf