A bill to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to publically disclose the identity of long-term care facilities listed under the Special Focus Facility Program of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

2007·0.17 MB·English

by  United States. Congress. Senate

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110thcongress 2480
l8TSession S.
ToreciiiiivtlieSecretan'ofHealthandHumanSenacestopublieallydisclose
the identity oflong-term care facilities listed underthe Special Focus
FacilityProgramoftheCentersforMedicare&MedicaidSei-vices.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
December13,2007
Mrs.Clinton(forherselfandMr.Harkin)introducedthefollowingbill;
whichwasreadtwiceandreferredtotheCommitteeonFinance
A
BILL
To require the Secretar\^ of Health and Human Sendees
topubhcallydisclosethe identityoflong:-term care facili-
ties listed under the Special Focus Facility Program
oftheCentersforMedicare&MedicaidServices.
1 BeitenactedbytheSenateandHouseofBepresenta-
2 tivesoftheUnitedStatesofAmericainCongressassembled,
3 SECTION1.SHORTTITLE.
4 ThisActmaybecitedasthe"NursingHomeQuality
5 andTransparency''Act".
6 SEC.2.FINDINGS.
7 Congi'essmakesthefolio-wingfindings:
2
1 (1) America's i)opulation is rapidly aging. The
2 population most likelyto needlong-term care, those
3 85 years of age and older, is projected to increase
4 from5,000,000in2006to21,000,000by2050.
5 (2) Currentlyapjiroximately 10,000,000Ameri-
6 cans have long-term care needs. Consen-ative esti-
7 mates indicate that the number of those needing
8 care^^^lldoubleby2050.
9 (3) Nearly 3,000,000 Americans depend on ap-
10 proximately 16,000 nursing homes nationwide at
11 some point during each year to pro\ade them with
12 carethatiscriticaltotheirhealthandweh-beinff
13 (4) On November 29, 2007, the Centers for
14 Medicare & Mecheaid Senices (referred to in this
15 sectionas "CMS") attheDepartmentofHealthand
16 Human Ser\ices released its first ranking of poor-
17 performingnursinghomes.
18 (5) This list of special focus facilities will give
19 famihes critical information as thev are choosino'
20 nursinghomecareforalovedone.
21 (6) As ofOctober 2007, therewere 128 special
22 focus facilities identified by CMS. These nursing
23 homes were identified because they are among the
24 poorest 5to 10percentineachState.
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1 (7) Designation as a special focus facility re-
2 suits in tAnce as manyinspections and monthlydoc-
3 umentation of all complaints for nursing- homes on
4 thelist.
5 (8) CMS dataindicatethat about50percentof
6 the nursing homes identified as special focus facili-
7 ties improve their quality ^^^thin 24 to 30 months,
8 while about 16 percent are terminated from partici-
9 pationinMedicareandMedicaid.
10 (9) Despitethevalueofdisclosingthisinforma-
11 tiontofamilies, CMSreleasedthenamesofonly52
12 ofthe 128poorperformingnursinghomes.
13 (10) To promote transparency and quality in
14 care, the names of all nursing homes that are des-
15 ignated as special focus facilities should be made
16 availabletothepublic.
17 SEC.3.DISCLOSUREOFSPECIALFOCUSFACILITIES.
18 Not later than 30 days afterthe date ofenactment
19 of this Act, and monthly thereafter, the Secretary of
20 Health and Human Services shall disclose, through the
21 use ofthe Internet website ofthe Centers for Medicare
22 &MedicaidServices,theidentitiesofthoselong-termcare
23 facilitiesthat appear onthe listofspecial focus facihties
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4 3 BU15 OODLDm 4
1 underthe Special Focus FacilityProgram ofthe Centers
2 forMedicare&MedicaidSenices.
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