Feb 15 -- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), invites comments on the proposed rule to implement portions of section 6101 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act), which require the disclosure of certain ownership, managerial, and other information regarding Medicare skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and Medicaid nursing facilities. To be assured consideration, comments must be received by April 14, 2023.
Section 6101(a) of the Affordable Care Act (Pub. L. 111-148) added a new section 1124(c) to the Social Security Act (the Act). This provision established requirements for the disclosure of information about the owners and operators of Medicare SNFs and Medicaid nursing facilities. (Except as otherwise indicated, these Medicare and Medicaid providers will be collectively referenced as “nursing facilities,” “nursing homes,” or simply “facilities”.)
We included provisions to implement section 1124(c) of the Act as part of the May 6, 2011 proposed rule titled “Prospective Payment System and Consolidated Billing for Skilled Nursing Facilities; Disclosures of Ownership and Additional Disclosable Parties Information” (76 FR 26364). We did not finalize these proposed disclosure provisions in the subsequent final rule, published on August 8, 2011, due to the need for more time to consider the comments received, though we stated that we would address our provisions in a separate final rule in early 2012. After reviewing the comments, we did not publish a final rule or finalize our proposals.
As explained in detail in the present proposed rule, however, we have recently received information regarding particular categories of nursing facility owners (including, but not limited to, private equity companies and real estate investment trusts) that has generated concerns about the standard of care that nursing facility residents receive. To help ensure that CMS has sufficient data on these owners and can thus better monitor and hold accountable their nursing facilities, we are again proposing to implement section 1124(c) of the Act, albeit with isolated exceptions as explained in section II.C. of this proposed rule.
There are three principal categories of provisions in this proposed rule.
a. Data To Be Reported -- We are proposing that nursing facilities would be required to disclose the following information to CMS or, for Medicaid nursing facilities, the applicable state Medicaid agency:
-- Each member of the governing body of the facility, including the name, title, and period of service of each member.
-- Each person or entity who is an officer, director, member, partner, trustee, or managing employee of the facility, including the name, title, and period of service of each such person or entity.
-- Each person or entity who is an additional disclosable party of the facility.
The organizational structure of each additional disclosable party of the facility and a description of the relationship of each such additional disclosable party to the facility and to one another.
To the extent that a Medicare SNF must already report some of this data via the Form CMS-855A provider enrollment application (Medicare Enrollment Application—Institutional Providers; Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Control No.: 0938-0685), we are proposing that the SNF need not report the same data required under section 1124(c) of Act more than once on the same application submission. (States would have the option of adopting a similar policy with respect to the required Medicaid nursing facility data.) We believe this would help prevent unnecessary burden on the facility.
We also intend to make the information provided per section 1124(c) of the Act publicly available as required under section 6101(b) of the Affordable Care Act.
b. Timing of Reporting -- We are proposing that the nursing facility would have to report the aforementioned information upon initially enrolling in Medicare or Medicaid and when revalidating their Medicare or Medicaid enrollment. Moreover, a Medicare SNF, once enrolled, would be required to disclose any changes to this information within the current timeframes specified in § 424.516(e) for reporting changes in enrollment data.
Consistent with 42 CFR 424.515, SNFs are required to revalidate their Medicare enrollment every 5 years. However, CMS under § 424.515(d) can perform off-cycle revalidations; that is, we can revalidate a provider or supplier at any time and need not wait until the arrival of their 5-year revalidation cycle. Should this proposed rule be finalized, CMS would accordingly reserve the right to conduct off-cycle revalidations of SNFs to collect the data required under section 1124(c) of the Act.
c. Definitions -- To explain some of the terminology associated with these reporting requirements, we are also proposing several new definitions. These include, but are not limited to, private equity company, real estate investment trust, additional disclosable party, and organizational structure.
CMS fact sheet:
https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/disclosures-ownership-and-additional-disclosable-parties-information-skilled-nursing-facilities-and
FRN:
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2023-02993