The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has unveiled a “new, reimagined” quality strategy that places a strong emphasis on improving the performance of state survey agencies and tougher enforcement on providers, Administrator Seema Verma said Tuesday. 

“Last year, we launched a framework for ensuring safety and quality in nursing homes. This framework has shaped all of our work on nursing home quality, and in fact, was so successful that we decided to replicate it across the agency and in all our programs in 2020 and beyond,” Verma said while speaking during the 2020 CMS Quality Conference. 

CMS Administrator Seema Verma

Through the strategy, the agency plans to set “reasonable” expectations for quality, improve transparency and choices for consumers, and strengthen its oversight and enforcement efforts. 

In a blog post last week, Verma also suggested tougher enforcement efforts were coming for providers as part of the agency’s previously announced five-part initiative aimed at improving nursing home quality and safety standards.

“We have improved oversight of State Survey Agencies by  clearly communicating our expectations to them — and to the nursing homes they inspect — so they have no question about how we measure performance,” Verma said Tuesday, while discussing the agency’s effort to address inconsistencies among surveyors.  

She noted CMS recently revised the State Performance Standards System, which is used to assess surveyor performance. 

“These revisions include new and better applications of data to monitor performance and ensure states are protecting residents from harm consistently across the country. Moving forward, we’re looking at ways to set clearer timelines for SSAs, so they know the expectations for arriving on site to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect, and if necessary, refer to law enforcement for additional support,” she added. 

During her speech, Verma also discussed the agency’s plans to streamline eight separate Compare websites, including the Nursing Home Compare website, and praised the agency’s decision to implement the consumer alert icon, despite much criticism from providers. 

“The decision to place a loved one in a nursing home is a wrenching one. In the past, prospective residents, or their families, could access information about nursing homes cited for abuse, but only by clicking through multiple screens. It was very difficult to find this information. In short, you had to know exactly where to look and how to do it. Last year, we added a new alert icon to our Nursing Home Compare website that identifies providers cited for significant cases of abuse or neglect,” Verma said. 

“I know some of the nursing homes didn’t like it but we felt like it was the right thing to do for patients and their families.”