Valued Voice

CMS Expands Nursing Homes Ownership Transparency and Quality Data on Care Compare

On June 28, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published new public data on Nursing Home ownership transparency and quality at its Nursing Home Care Compare website.  

In its announcement, CMS said it will bring aggregate data on the safety, staffing, and quality of groups of nursing homes sharing ownership/operatorship on the website. 

CMS began posting ownership changeover data in 2022 and then added more detailed ownership information about Medicare certified nursing homes in September 2022. This included information about groups of nursing homes liked together by common owners, referred to as "affiliated entities," which sometimes includes private equity holding companies and/or and consulting firms. 

"CMS remains committed to the American public by providing residents, families, caregivers and stakeholders with as much information as possible about nursing homes in order to support consumers in making informed decisions about their health care and to promote safety and quality in nursing homes," CMS said in an e-mail to stakeholders about the announcement. 

The email went on to say that the information "will increase the transparency of nursing home safety and quality data among nursing homes with shared ownership and operatorship structures," and "can also be used by states to gain more information about prospective owners and operators of nursing homes prior to certification of new nursing homes and during change of ownership requests."