Approximately 400 Nursing Homes Have Serious Health and Safety Violations / Casey and Toomey Release Report Detailing Scope of Problem Nationwide
Washington, DC —Following an inquiry by U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) into under-performing nursing homes, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently handed over an unreleased list of facilities with a documented pattern of poor care.
CMS oversees a program for nursing homes that consistently underperform, called the Special Focus Facility program. The names of the facilities chosen to participate in the program are made public, however, the approximately 400 nursing homes that are not selected to participate are kept hidden from the public. In order to provide greater transparency to individuals and families, Senators Casey and Toomey requested the names of these additional facilities be made publicly available by CMS. After CMS chose not to release this list, Senators Casey and Toomey are releasing this information alongside a report with additional background and context.
“Across Pennsylvania, and the Nation, most nursing homes serve their residents well and treat them with dignity and kindness. It is outrageous that we continue to hear stories of abuse and neglect in nursing homes that do not live up to these high standards,” said Senator Casey. “Choosing a nursing home is a difficult, and often painful, decision to make. Individuals and families deserve to have all the information available to choose the facility that is right for them. I will continue to press the Administration to ensure every person has ready access to the information they need to make a fully informed choice.”
“When a family makes the hard decision to seek nursing home services for a loved one, they deserve to know if a facility under consideration suffers from systemic shortcomings. While the vast majority of nursing homes provide high-quality care, there are some that are consistently failing to meet objective standards of adequacy. To date, CMS has arbitrarily excluded from public disclosure a subset of these underperforming nursing homes. Moving forward, I hope CMS will give the public this particular list, as well as all relevant information about nursing home quality,” Senator Toomey.
In March, Sens. Casey and Toomey wrote to CMS requesting information on its oversight of nursing homes in the Special Focus Facility program, including those identified by news reports that alleged reports of abuse and neglect.
- Read the list here.
- Read the report from Sens. Casey and Toomey here.
- Read the letter to CMS from Sens. Casey and Toomey here.
- Read the CMS response here.
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