Elder Justice Alert: Republican Congressmen Question CMS’s Oversight of Nursing Homes

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, Subcommittee Chairman Gregg Harper, Subcommittee Chairman Michael Burgess, and member Gus Bilirakis voiced their concerns over media reports of nursing home resident harm in an April 2, 2018, letter to CMS Administrator Seema Verma. The letter states that “[t]hese reports raise serious questions about the degree to which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is fulfilling its responsibility to ensure federal quality of care standards are being met...”[7]  The Congressmen add that the adequacy of CMS’s oversight of skilled nursing facilities has also been “called into question” in reports by the HHS Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office (GAO).[8] 

The Congressmen specifically point to the tragedy that occurred in Florida, where 14 residents of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills died after the facility’s air conditioner lost power during Hurricane Irma. Raising the link between ownership and poorly performing facilities, the Congressmen note that this is not the first time that the facility’s owner has been “scrutinized by the federal government.”[9] Previously, the owner entered into a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice in a civil case regarding kickbacks and medically unnecessary treatments that were performed on “elderly beneficiaries to generate Medicare and Medicaid payments.”[10] Even more recently, another one of the owner’s facilities was found to have 30 violations, including “sexual assault of patients, low staffing, and ignoring patients.”[11]

The Congressmen have asked CMS to provide the Committee with information about CMS’s role overseeing nursing homes, including the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills and any other facility linked to that facility’s owner.

• To read the Energy and Commerce letter to CMS Administrator Seema Verma, please see: https://energycommerce.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/20180402CMS.pdf  

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[1] Transition to Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) Staffing Measures on the Nursing Home Compare tool on Medicare.gov and the Five Star Quality Rating System, CMS (April 6, 2018), https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertificationGenInfo/Downloads/QSO18-17-NH.pdf.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] See id. (noting that “[a]s the number of RN hours increases, so does performance on . . . quality measures”).
[7] Letter from Greg Walden et al. to Seema Verma (April 2, 2018), https://energycommerce.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/20180402CMS.pdf.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] Id.