The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services annual pay rule always holds some additional nuggets for skilled nursing providers, but this year’s proposal — issued April 4 — offers a bounty of quality incentives. Among those are extensive changes to the Quality Reporting Program, for which providers are required to report specific data or face a 2% penalty. In all, 200 of 312 pages are related to quality programs and changes CMS plans to make over the next several years, notes Melanie Tribe-Scott, BSN, director of quality innovations for Zimmet Healthcare Services Group. “It’s kind of like the year of the quality initiatives if you will,” she says in outlining the expected QRP changes. While some proposals aim to benefit providers by reducing reporting, they’ll be plenty of additional requirements to come. Metrics soon to be available to consumers, referral partners and anyone else visiting Care Compare will include an additional COVID vaccination measure, an updated discharge function measure and a chance for providers to capture patient satisfaction. In this episode hosted by McKnight’s Senior Editor Kimberly Marselas, Tribe-Scott lays out key features of the CMS proposals, why they matter and how nursing home leaders and MDS pros can prepare for what’s to come.
Want to learn more about the latest CMS quality proposals? Check out this McKnight’s article with additional insights from Tribe-Scott and other nursing home clinical and quality experts.
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