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U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, who chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging, is urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to take immediate steps to strengthen nursing home oversight.
According to a news release, Casey called on CMS to increase transparency and improve monitoring of state survey agencies, which are responsible for ensuring the health and safety of the Nation's 1.1 million nursing home residents, in a letter. The letter follows Casey's release of "Uninspected and Neglected," an investigation that found 32 state survey agencies have vacancy rates of 20% or higher, an issue that states have directly linked to nursing home inspection delays. The investigation recommended CMS track and report these shortages to improve the nursing home oversight system.
"CMS has an integral role to play in addressing many of the current failures of the nursing home oversight system, especially to improve monitoring and reporting on the capacity of state survey agencies to carry out statutorily required inspections in mandated timeframes," Casey and colleagues U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote, according to the news release. "The Nation's 1.1 million nursing home residents should expect high quality care to be delivered in an environment that prioritizes health, safety, and human dignity. Thorough and timely nursing home inspections are key to ensuring these goals are met."
As of May 2023, federal data show that 28 percent of the nation's 15,000 nursing homes have not received a comprehensive annual inspection for 16 months or more, placing them behind on statutorily mandated annual inspection schedules. One in nine nursing homes have not received an annual inspection in at least two years.
In the letter, the senators requested CMS provide detailed information on how the agency intends to take action to address these shortfalls by state survey agencies, the news release said.