A recommendation to limit duplicative nursing home and assisted living inspections has drawn kudos from a leading healthcare group.

Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA), the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, wrote in a recent report that inspections for facilities can be “duplicative with state and local health and safety codes and at times even contradictory” under the National Housing Act. The report, which accompanied a bill from the subcommittee, instructs HUD to issue regulations limiting inspections to those facilities that state or local government does not inspect, or provide sufficient inspections in compliance with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requirements.

The American Health Care Association lauded Latham for protecting providers from “unnecessary regulation.”

“In these tough economic times, our profession is already suffering billions in Medicare and Medicaid cuts, and the cost burdens that come with these duplicative surveys add more to this difficulty,” said Gov. Mark Parkinson, AHCA president and CEO.