Dressing "bare below the elbow" is recommended by SHEA.

Skilled nursing providers should submit their next round of payroll based journaling data well ahead of the May 15 deadline in order to catch errors, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services officials said Thursday.

Providers will have until that date to submit data for the fiscal quarter lasting from Jan. 1 to March 31, 2017.

CMS staff told attendees of the Skilled Nursing Facility Open Door Forum call to not hold out until the deadline in order to see if there are “errors and issues” and leave time for corrections if needed.

While providers’ compliance with the program has not been added to their Five-Star rating yet, CMS officials noted the addition of a badge to the Nursing Home Compare website that will show whether or not a facility has submitted staffing data. A green badge indicates that the facility is already participating in the PBJ program; gray means a facility isn’t participating yet.

The badge also includes a note that the staffing reporting program will “be on Nursing Home Compare by early 2018.”

Providers will have “advance notice” from CMS of when staffing submissions will be used to calculate star ratings, officials explained.

CMS officials also encouraged providers to submit feedback on whether patient-level data such as insurance claim number for inpatient stay, gender and date of birth, should be included on quarterly value-based purchasing reports.