GAO Releases Report on Nursing Home Quality and Information

Last week, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a Health Care Capsule report summarizing its extensive work on nursing homes, including assessments of the quality of care, COVID-19 response, consumer information concerns, and more. GAO has recommended, among other things, that the government provide consumers with more information on care quality—such as more data on nurse staffing and COVID-19 vaccination rates. It also recommended ways to make it easier for consumers to compare the quality of care in nursing homes across the nation. Some of the recommendations include:

• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should add information to Care Compare that allows nursing homes to be compared nationally, rather than only within a state.
• CMS should add more information on staffing, such as weekend decreases in nurse staffing levels and minimum nurse staffing thresholds needed to ensure quality of care.
• The Department of Health and Human Services should ensure that data specific to the COVID-19 vaccination rates be made publicly available.

Read the report.