Title IV, Subtitle B, of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, entitled Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement, contains several provisions affecting nursing homes. The legislation requires nursing homes to disclose their owners, managers, and the organizational structure to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), the HHS Inspector General, the state in which the nursing home is located, and in certain cases, the state long-term care ombudsman. The HHS Secretary will make the disclosures available to the public. Additionally, nursing homes will now be required to implement a compliance and ethics program to detect criminal, civil and administrative violations within the facility, as well as promoting quality of care.
Further, Medicare’s Nursing Home Compare website will now contain staffing data, links to state nursing home inspection reports, and other information regarding complaints against and violations by nursing homes. Nursing Home Compare will also include a consumer rights information page.
HHS will develop additional rules implementing Subtitle B before March 23, 2012.
