Close up image of a caretaker helping older woman walk

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released waivers that allow nursing homes to temporarily delay pre-admission screenings for residents. 

The agency allows states and nursing homes to suspend Pre-Admission Screening and Annual Resident Review (PASRR) assessments for new residents for 30 days. After 30 days, new nursing home residents with a mental illness or intellectual disability should receive the assessment as soon as resources become available. 

CMS announced that it’s revising the PASRR regulations in the first major change to the rules since the early 1990s. Proposed changes included updating the definitions of mental illness and interring disability.

The agency also modified certain requirements for the Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement program. The waivers narrows the scope of the QAPI program to focus on adverse events and infection control. 

“This will help ensure facilities focus on aspects of care delivery most closely associated with COVID-19 during the [public health emergency,” CMS explained. 

The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living recently detailed the various blanket waivers, which have a retroactive effective date of March 1, 2020.

In related news, the agency is considering enacting a proposed rule that would reduce infection control guidelines in nursing homes. The rule would limit the time an infection preventionist spends at a particular facility and change facility-wide assessments to every other year, USA Today reported this week. It also would permit nursing homes to disregard a requirement that caps the number of residents to two per room. 

The proposed rule, which has drawn criticism because of the deadly impact of the coronavirus in nursing homes, was first introduced in July 2019. CMS told the news outlet it is mulling enacting the rule to reduce burdensome requirements for nursing homes.