Lawmakers Urge CMS to Strengthen Nursing Home Ownership Transparency

A group of lawmakers—including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Charles Grassley (D-IA), and Bob Casey (D-PA), and Reps. Katie Porter (D-CA) and Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)—recently sent a letter to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) officials urging them to strengthen some provisions of their recent proposed rule on nursing home ownership and transparency.

The letter urged the following:

1. Require more robust ownership reporting requirements for Medicare-certified nursing homes.
2. Require standardized reporting requirements for Medicaid-certified nursing homes.
3. Require reporting of all related parties in which nursing home owners have a direct or indirect stake.
4. Require a complete listing of each facility in a nursing home chain owned by the same parent company.
5. Provide clear reporting timelines and establish penalties for failure to report accurate information.
6. Establish a requirement for annual auditing to verify data accuracy.
7. Make these data available in a publicly searchable database.

The letter also posed several questions to help further clarify requirements.

CMS is working on finalizing the proposed rule, which is expected this summer.