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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) instituted the Special Focus Facility Program to identify nursing homes with a history of serious quality issues and to implement practices to help improve their quality of resident care.
Facilities who perform poorly are subject to state surveys or inspections to determine whether they are meeting health and safety standards. When deficiencies are identified, facilities must submit plans to CMS to improve their deficient practices or else face losing their Medicare and Medicaid funding.
CMS recently updated its list of Special Focus Facilities (SFF), which includes previously undisclosed candidates for the program. For instance, Rowley Memorial Masonic Home in Perry, Iowa, has been added after state inspectors cited the facility for a resident’s death, sexual abuse and other violations.
Nursing homes in Wisconsin, New Mexico and Iowa that have qualified to be selected as an SFF include:
The list also includes facilities that have not showed significant improvement in at least one inspection.
There are other facilities that have shown improvement or recently graduated from the program. This includes the following:
Many nursing homes have some deficiencies. On average between six and seven deficiencies per survey. Most facilities correct their deficiencies within a reasonable time period. However, a small number of nursing homes have twice as many problems as other facilities, more serious problems involving harm or injury to residents, or a pattern of problems that have lasted over a long time period.
CMS requires SFF nursing homes to be visited in person by survey teams twice as frequently as other facilities. Inspections are converted into points based on the number of deficiencies cited. The more deficiencies cited, the more points are assigned and the greater enforcement actions will be taken.
These actions could include fines or being terminated from participation in Medicare and Medicaid. Overall, nursing homes must show substantial improvements in order to graduate from the program.
Facilities listed on the Special Focus Facility List already have a history of poor performance that give rise to repeated cycles of serious deficiencies, posing a risk to residents’ health and safety.
Our Wisconsin nursing home abuse lawyers at PKSD are prepared to conduct an investigation to gather evidence to help establish that a nursing home failed to provide a reasonable level of care to protect residents from injuries and abuse.
Learn more about your legal options during a free and confidential consultation. We work on a contingency fee basis, so there are no upfront service fees unless we obtain compensation for you.
Gives us a call at 414-333-3333 to get started on your claim.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by attorney Jeffery A. Pitman, who has more than 28 years of legal experience and handled thousands of personal injury cases while obtaining millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and New Mexico.
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