January 27, 2025The Long Term Care Community Coalition is pleased to announce the release of new, interactive data on Nursing Home Citations and Penalties. These user-friendly datasets are critical for analyzing how well nursing homes are being held accountable for violations, and evaluating the quality of care provided to residents, including identifying patterns of deficiencies or harm-level violations. 

About the Datasets 

Citations Data: 

This dataset, available in Excel, offers detailed information on health deficiencies issued to nursing homes in the last three years, including: 

  • Date of Citation 
  • Category of Citation (F-tag) 
  • Level of Scope and Severity 

Our interactive Tableau dashboard enables users to search and compare the numbers of deficiencies and extent to which surveyors identify resident harm by nursing home, state, or CMS Region. For example, these data indicate whether a state or CMS Region is more or less likely to identify “harm” or “immediate jeopardy” citations. This information is vital for understanding enforcement activities and identifying facilities with a history of deficiencies.

Key findings: 

  • Total Deficiencies: 404,615 
  • Immediate Jeopardy Deficiencies (J or Above): 9,141 (2.3%) 
  • Harm-Level Deficiencies (G or Above): 22,976 (5.7%) 
  • Nevada has the lowest rate of harm citations (1.4%) while Kentucky has the highest (13.1%) 
  • CMS Region 9 (San Francisco) has the lowest rate of harm citations (2.8%) while CMS Region 8 (Denver) has the highest (9.7%). 

Penalties 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. 

Explore the Penalties Data: View Penalties Data 

Key findings (past three years): 

  • Total Fines Nationwide: $559 million 
  • Average Fine per Penalty: $22,225 
  • Total Number of Payment Denials: 3,180 
  • Illinois received the highest total fines ($75 million) and the fourth highest dollars per fine ($39,000). Maine imposed the lowest total fines of any state and was the fourth lowest in respect to dollars per fine. 
  • CMS Region 5 (Chicago) had the highest total fines ($168 million) while CMS Region 8 (Denver) had the lowest ($18 million). 

 

Note: LTCCC’s deficiencies and penalties datasets are based on data published by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS Health Deficiencies: https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/dataset/r5ix-sfxw. CMS Penalties: https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/dataset/g6vv-u9sr