The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced last week that it will offer cash incentives to improve quality of care in nursing homes. CMS will ask Arizona, Mississippi, New York, and Wisconsin to participate. (Source)
Quality of care areas include nurse staffing and the scope and severity of deficiency citations the home has received during inspections. Those with the highest scores/greatest performance will receive performance payment.
Acting administrator Charlene Frizzera said, “Medicare is always interested in testing new ways to improve the quality of care in nursing homes. We believe this demonstration to provide incentive payments for superior performance will be informative.”