HCFA moves to improve quality in nursing homes
With bigger fines and quicker investigations, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) in Baltimore is vowing to improve quality of care at nursing homes.
HCFA administrator Nancy-Ann DeParle recently announced new steps the agency will take to enforce federal and state nursing home standards in the 17,000 nursing homes across the country. Under new regulations issued recently, states can recommend fines up to $10,000 for each serious incident that threatens the health or safety of residents. Previous regulations linked the fines to the number of days that the nursing homes failed to comply with federal requirements, usually amounting to much less than $10,000.
The new regulation also establishes that regulators do not have to wait until a violation is corrected to assess a penalty. Nursing homes will not be able to avoid the fines by fixing the deficiency, though they can continue to contest the fines as before.
HCFA also is requiring states to move more quickly in response to nursing home complaints. Complaints alleging immediate jeopardy already required an investigation within two days, but now HCFA is saying that any complaint alleging harm to a patient must be investigated within 10 working days.
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