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May 21, 2023 - WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.), along with U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) and chuck grassley senator iowa official photoKatie Porter (D-Calif.), in calling on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to strengthen and finalize CMS’s proposed rule to make nursing home ownership more transparent. 

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

For decades, Grassley has pushed for enhanced disclosure and accountability of private equity, real estate investment trust and related party ownership in nursing homes. His leadership resulted in a law requiring facilities to disclose all people and entities with control, offering administrative services or holding property leases. The law required CMS finalize a rule within two years of passage. Although CMS published a proposed rule in May 2011, it was never implemented.
 
Earlier this year, Grassley sent a letter outlining this history and urging CMS to complete the rule. This week’s letter adds increased, bipartisan pressure on CMS to finalize the rule and protect our nation’s loved ones. 
 
“While we appreciate CMS taking steps to implement this long overdue rule, which establishes requirements for the disclosure of information about the owners and operators of Medicare skilled nursing facilities and Medicaid nursing facilities, we believe that certain provisions of the proposed rule could be strengthened for the benefit of patients,” the lawmakers wrote. “Specifically, we urge you to clarify ownership definitions, establish strong auditing and enforcement measures, and ensure that comprehensive reporting information is made available to the public in an easily searchable format.”
 
“Increased transparency will empower older adults, their families, researchers, and health care providers to identify nursing homes that provide excellent care, while at the same time hold bad actors accountable,” the lawmakers continued. “To prevent nursing home owners from prioritizing profits over patients, these data will give CMS the tools to identify waste, fraud, and abuse of federal Medicare and Medicaid dollars.” 
 
The lawmakers recommend that CMS consider strengthening its proposed rule in the following ways: 
 
  • Require more robust ownership reporting requirements for Medicare-certified nursing homes;
  • Require standardized reporting requirements for Medicaid-certified nursing homes; 
  • Require reporting of all related-parties in which nursing home owners have a direct or indirect stake;
  • Require a complete listing of each facility in a nursing home chain owned by the same parent company; 
  • Provide clear reporting timelines and establish penalties for failure to report accurate information; 
  • Establish a requirement for annual auditing to verify data accuracy; 
  • Make these data available in a publicly searchable database. 
 

The full text of the letter can be found HERE.
Source: Senator Chuck Grassley