July 18, 2024 – The Long Term Care Community Coalition (LTCCC) has released new, interactive data tools with the latest federal information on nursing home citations and penalties. These user-friendly datasets are critical for understanding enforcement actions in nursing homes and evaluating the quality of care provided to residents. 

I. NURSING HOME DEFICIENCY DATA:

This dataset can be downloaded in Excel or viewed online in Tableau. It provides detailed information on health citations (deficiencies) issued to nursing homes in the last three years, including: 

  • Date of Citation 
  • Standard That Was Violated (F-tag) 
  • Extent to Which Resident Harm Was Identified by the State Agency (Scope and Severity )

Our interactive dashboard enables users to search for citations by nursing home and compare citations across states and CMS regions. It also provides information on the extent to which “harm” or “immediate jeopardy” are identified when substandard care, neglect, or abuse are cited. This information is important because, in the absence of the identification of resident harm or immediate jeopardy in a nursing home citation, it is extremely unlikely that a facility will face any penalty. Thus, this information can help the public and policymakers gain insights into the extent to which states (and the CMS regional offices overseeing the states) are holding nursing homes accountable for fulfilling their promise to residents, families, and American taxpayers.

Key findings: 

  • Total Deficiencies Nationwide: 397,562 
  • Immediate Jeopardy Deficiencies (J or Above): 8,648 (2.2%) 
  • Harm-Level Deficiencies (G or Above, including Immediate Jeopardy): 22,169 (5.6%) 
  • Nevada has the lowest rate of harm citations (1.2%) while Kentucky has the highest (13.6%) 
  • CMS Region 9 (San Francisco) has the lowest rate of harm citations (2.8%) while CMS Region 8 (Denver) has the highest (9.0%). 

II. NURSING HOME PENALTY DATA:

This dataset provides detailed information on fines and payment denials received by nursing homes in the past three years, including: 

  • Total Fines in Dollars 
  • Number of Fines 
  • Total Payment Denials 

This tool can help you assess the extent to which nursing homes are held accountable for substandard care by receiving a fine and/or a denial of payment for any new admissions to the facility. 

Key Findings: 

  • Total Fines Nationwide: $566 million 
  • Average Fine: $18,056 
  • Total Number of Fines: 31,347
  • Total Number of Payment Denials: 3,227 
  • Illinois nursing homes received the highest total fines ($74 million) and the third highest dollars per fine ($34,000). Maine imposed the lowest total fines of any state and was the third lowest in respect to dollars per fine.
  • CMS Region 5 (Chicago) had the highest total fines ($177 million) while CMS Region 8 (Denver) had the lowest ($20 million).

Note: LTCCC’s deficiencies and penalties datasets are derived from data published by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS health deficiency data are available at https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/dataset/r5ix-sfxw. CMS penalty data are available at https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/dataset/g6vv-u9sr.