News Article

Biden-Harris Administration Announces Actions to Increase Accountability and Improve Quality in Nursing Homes

October 26, 2022

On Friday, October 21, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration announced new actions to increase accountability and improve quality in nursing homes.  
Central to Friday’s announcement were changes to the Special Focus Facilities (SFF) Program.  Administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the SFF program places special scrutiny on select nursing homes with a documented pattern of providing poor care. (See the most recent list of SFF.)  The changes to the SFF program include:

• Escalating penalties for violations in nursing homes that fail to improve, including considering terminating facilities from the Medicare and Medicaid programs that continue to be cited for dangerous violations;
• Stricter requirements that a nursing home must meet in order to graduate from the program;
• Continued close scrutiny of the facility for at least 3 years after a facility leaves; and
• Increased engagement by CMS with the poor-performing nursing homes in the program to help them understand how to improve.

Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) announced newly available funds to support good-quality nursing home jobs.  HHS and DOL have made funds available to increase the number of nursing educators, expand nursing education and training, and support the nursing workforce pipeline.

For more information about the new actions from the Biden-Harris Administration, read the fact sheet.