For the second time, President Joe Biden announced during a State of the Union that his administration would be tightening its grip on nursing homes.
“We’re protecting seniors’ life savings by cracking down on nursing homes that commit fraud, endanger patient safety and prescribe drugs that are not needed,” Biden trumpeted in his Feb. 7 speech to the nation.
The 12-second mention was in direct reference to the administration’s Jan. 18 announcement that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would start audits to determine if providers are properly assessing and coding patients with schizophrenia. The agency also announced at that time that it will publicly display disputed survey citations before cases are resolved.
The White House also directly indicated in a new Fact Sheet that more regulatory belt-tightening will be coming for nursing homes. Less than a week later, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new nursing home ownership disclosure rule intended to make ownership and management roles of facilities more clear.
