The final submission deadline for nursing homes to report their staffing data for last quarter in the Payroll Based Journal (PBJ) is just weeks away.
Staff members with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Thursday during an open door forum reminded providers that data from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 must be submitted no later than 45 days after the quarter and the deadline for this quarter is Feb. 14.
Providers have been required to report staffing data since 2016 as part of the PBJ. CMS this week started publicly displaying nursing home staff turnover rates and weekend staffing levels on the Care Compare website. The agency also will begin incorporating the data into the Five Star rating system starting in July.
Only data successfully submitted by the deadline is considered timely and used on the Care Compare website and in Five-Star ratings calculations, according to CMS.
“Once a facility uploads their data file, they need to check their final validation report which can be accessed in the [CASPER] folder to verify if the data was successfully submitted,” a CMS staffer said during the forum.
She noted that it may take up to 24 hours for providers to receive the validation report. The final validation report also only confirms that the data is submitted successfully and does not confirm that the data submitted is accurate or complete.
Facilities should also run the MDS census report to verify that its information is accurate. CMS also recommended that providers don’t wait until the “last few days before the deadline” to begin their submissions.
