Ask Your Representative to Support the Nursing Home Disclosure Act
Representatives Mike Levin (D-CA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) re-introduced The Nursing Home Disclosure Act (H. R. 177). The bipartisan bill would require nursing homes to report their medical directors to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which must publish this information on the online Care Compare tool. Currently, most nursing homes do not provide a full public report of who their medical directors are, leaving families without critical information they need as they search for quality nursing homes.
To qualify for Medicare payments, skilled nursing facilities must designate a physician to serve as medical director to implement resident care policies and coordinate medical care in the facility. While nursing homes are currently required to report all “managing employees,” which should include medical directors, there is significant underreporting in the system. During the first quarter of 2019, 30% of nursing homes did not report staff hours for their medical directors. Medicare’s Care Compare tool is an online database that helps Medicare beneficiaries find a Medicare provider. For nursing homes, Care Compare provides important information, including an overall five star-rating, ownership details, and the latest health and fire inspection results.
The Nursing Home Disclosure Act would add an explicit requirement for nursing homes to disclose their medical director and would require CMS to publish this information on the Care Compare website. This change would increase transparency for families as they search for nursing homes for their loved ones and would ensure the data collection necessary to hold facilities accountable for hiring qualified medical directors.