The second-largest nursing home association in the U.S. is urging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to not implement plans to place a consumer alert icon next to facilities that have received certain abuse citations on the Nursing Home Compare website.
LeadingAge sent a letter with the request to Administrator Seema Verma Monday. The organization also called on members to contact the federal agency and express their opposition to the icon. A variety of American Health Care Associations leaders called on CMS to reconsider the icon symbol earlier this week.
The icon — which features an open palm in a red circle — doesn’t distinguish between nursing homes that correct and report abusive incidents and those that don’t, the organization stated.
“What is needed is true reform of the broken nursing home oversight system. The red icon is a gimmick that will do nothing to accomplish what all of us want to see — the highest quality nursing home care and sound, verifiable information on which nursing homes are providing it,” the organization wrote.
