In another step in the years-long process of increasing transparency in the nursing home industry, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has begun posting nursing home affiliations on Nursing Home Care Compare. CMS’ goal in publishing the information is to help consumers more easily identify related facilities and understand overall performance of commonly owned facilities. The agency will link facilities based on common owners and publish aggregate nursing home performance data on data.cms.gov. This data includes inspection results, staffing levels, quality metrics, and other relevant information. The initiative was announced in a memo sent to state survey agency directors.

By making information about affiliated entities accessible on Nursing Home Care Compare, CMS stated that it is attempting to “provide consumers with as much information about nursing homes as possible to support their healthcare decisions.” The affiliated entity names and identification numbers will be provided for each facility, and the ownership data will be sourced from the Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (“PECOS”).

The nursing home industry has pointed out that the accuracy of information pulled from PECOS could be an issue as ownership changes occur frequently. The concern is that a facility with a negative compliance history could be incorrectly tied to an affiliated owner and negatively affect the overall reported performance of the owner and potentially leading to lawsuits against incorrect entities. Owners and operators within the nursing home space should check Nursing Home Care Compare to verify affiliation information and report any errors immediately to NH_Affiliation_Inquiries@cms.hhs.gov.