We found that 12.3 percent of fiscal year 2008 comparative surveys identified at least one missed serious deficiency, compared to 14.7 percent in fiscal year 2007. Because the percentage of comparative surveys identifying at least one missed serious deficiency has fluctuated from as low as 11.1 percent to as high as 17.5 percent since fiscal year 2002, the longer-term trend is unclear. Overall, t

Most states have requirements or guidance to facilitate voting for long-term care facility residents, and some states also provide training and conduct oversight of localities' adherence to state requirements or guidance. States reported that they most commonly provided requirements or guidance for accommodations for absentee voting for residents of long-term care facilities, followed by accommod

This is an E-supplement to GAO-10-70. This document presents the responses from two Web-based questionnaires on the process for identifying and citing nursing home deficiencies. We collected this information to study and report on the factors that contribute to the understatement of serious deficiencies on nursing home surveys. We developed two Web-based questionnaires--one for the nursing home s

Federal funding for state surveys increased from fiscal years 2000 through 2002 but was nearly flat from fiscal years 2002 through 2007. In inflation-adjusted terms, funding fell 9 percent from fiscal years 2002 through 2007. CMS has made incremental adjustments to improve its management of state allocations. It shifted federal funding from support contracts to surveys, increasing state allocatio

Nationwide, HRS data showed that, at the time most elderly individuals entered a nursing home, they had nonhousing resources of $70,000 or less--less than the average cost for a year of private-pay nursing home care. Overall, nursing home residents covered by Medicaid had fewer nonhousing resources and lower annual incomes, and were less likely to have reported transferring cash than non-Medicaid

VA does not compile information on key characteristics of veterans receiving care in state veterans' nursing homes: veterans' length of stay, priority group status for VA hospital and outpatient services, age, and gender. VA needs such information for strategic planning, in order to develop baseline data of characteristics of veterans in state veterans' nursing homes and the care provided to them

According to the Pulaski County coroner, he referred 86 cases of suspected resident neglect to the state survey agency for the period July 1999, when the Arkansas law took effect, through December 2003. Agency officials said that other state coroners referred four cases during this time period. Importantly, these 86 referrals constituted just 2.2 percent of all nursing home deaths the coroner inv

Cost has been a barrier to CMS requiring sprinklers for all older nursing homes even though sprinklers are considered to be the single most effective fire protection feature. There has never been a multiple-death fire in a fully sprinklered nursing home and sprinklers are now required in all new facilities. The decision to allow older, existing facilities to operate without sprinklers is now bein

For many years states have used varied financing schemes, sometimes involving IGTs, to inappropriately increase federal Medicaid matching payments. Some states, for example, receive federal matching funds on the basis of large Medicaid payments to certain providers, such as nursing homes operated by local governments, which greatly exceed established Medicaid rates. In reality, the large payments

CMS has granted transition periods to 18 states for phasing out excessive claims for federal Medicaid funds obtained through UPL financing schemes. Eight states were granted 1- or 2-year transition periods, seven were granted 5-year transitions, and three states--Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin--were granted the maximum of 8 years. The law permits 8-year transition periods for qualifying st