Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act of 2009

Bill: 111-s-647
Sponsor: Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA]
Introduced: 2009-03-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Aging
Allied health services
Business records
Congressional oversight
Consumer affairs
Government information and archives
Government studies and investigations
Health care quality
Health facilities and institutions
Health personnel
Long-term, rehabilitative, and terminal care
Medicaid
Medicare
Wages and earnings

Summary:
action_date: 2009-03-19
text: 
Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act of 2009 - Amends titles XVIII (Medicare) and XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act to direct skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and nursing facilities to make available ownership and additional disclosable parties information for submission to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the state in which the facility is located, and in certain instances the state long-term care ombudsman.
 
Outlines accountability requirements for such institutions.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish a quality assurance and performance improvement (QAPI) program for SNFs, including multi-unit chains of such facilities.
 
Requires specified additional information to appear on the HHS Nursing Home Compare Medicare Website.
 
Requires SNFs to separately report expenditures for wages and benefits for different levels of direct care staff.
 
Directs the Secretary to develop a standardized form for use by a resident (or a person acting on the resident's behalf) in filing a complaint about a SNF with a state survey and certification agency or long-term care ombudsman program. Requires a state to establish a complaint resolution process. 
 
Directs the Secretary to establish a program for SNFs to report staffing information based on payroll data and other verifiable and auditable data in a uniform format.
 
Outlines rules governing civil monetary penalties for SNF violations.
 
Requires the Comptroller General to study and report to Congress on the financial status, resident care, and performance of SNFs and nursing facilities in the Special Focus Facility (or a successor) program of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services relative to a comparable sample of facilities outside such program.
 
Directs the Secretary to establish a national independent monitoring pilot program to oversee interstate and large intrastate chains of SNFs.
 
Requires a SNF administrator to notify the Secretary and other responsible parties of an impending closure of the facility. 
 
Directs the Secretary to conduct demonstration projects on the culture change movement and the development of best practices in SNFs and nursing facilities for the use of information technology to improve resident care.
 
Directs the Secretary establish requirements for the approval of nurse aide training and competency evaluation programs that include dementia management training and patient abuse prevention training.
 
Directs the Secretary to study and report to Congress on training for certified nurse aides and supervisory staff of SNFs and nursing facilities.
 

 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2009-03-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2009-03-19
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S3555-3556)
action_date: 2009-03-19
text: Introduced in Senate