Washington, D.C. — Mark Parkinson, President and CEO of the American Health Care Association (AHCA) issued the following statement in response to today’s announcement that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will later this month begin to display on Nursing Home Compare a consumer alert icon next to nursing homes that have been cited for incidents of abuse, neglect, or exploitation.
“We support transparency so that potential residents and their families can make an informed decision on care,” said Parkinson. “We appreciate CMS’ efforts to improve Nursing Home Compare but as we have previously suggested, we believe that CMS should create a standard and rational definition of both abuse and neglect and then report them separately. That would help provide consumers with the information that they need.
“In addition, CMS should add customer satisfaction to Nursing Home Compare because that is the best way for consumers to select facilities. It’s surprising that we can look for customer reviews of restaurants and hotels that we select, but that information isn’t available for nursing homes. We should have a way to let families and residents think of the facilities they are considering.”
ABOUT AHCA/NCAL
The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) represents more than 13,700 non-profit and proprietary skilled nursing centers, assisted living communities, sub-acute centers and homes for individuals with intellectual and development disabilities. By delivering solutions for quality care, AHCA/NCAL aims to improve the lives of the millions of frail, elderly and individuals with disabilities who receive long term or post-acute care in our member facilities each day. For more information, please visit www.ahca.org or www.ncal.org.