Bill Text: NJ AR147 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to increase access to skilled nursing facility and home office data.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-2)
Status: (Passed) 2023-01-26 - Filed with Secretary of State [AR147 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2022-AR147-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman HERB CONAWAY, JR.
District 7 (Burlington)
SYNOPSIS
Urges Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to increase access to skilled nursing facility and home office data.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Assembly Resolution urging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to increase access to skilled nursing facility and home office data.
Whereas, Medicare-certified institutional providers are required to submit an annual cost report, through Form CMS-2540-10, to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which report contains provider information such as facility characteristics, utilization data, cost and charges by cost center, Medicare settlement data, and financial statement data; and
Whereas, New Jersey has over 300 skilled nursing facilities that are Medicare-certified institutional providers and required to submit annual cost reports to CMS; and
Whereas, These cost reports can provide valuable information that can help shape strategies to improve the quality of care provided in, and contain the costs of, skilled nursing facilities in the State; and
Whereas, The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for increased coordination and resource support in the State's health care system, especially among skilled nursing facilities, which suffered some of the country's highest death tolls at the height of the pandemic; and
Whereas, CMS have traditionally published the annual cost reports for skilled nursing facilities on their Internet website; and
Whereas, These cost reports for skilled nursing facilities had been published in a raw data format, which required the use of advanced statistical software to analyze, and did not include individual facility-level data, which had only been available upon request pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act; and
Whereas, On July 9, 2021, CMS created a dataset concerning skilled nursing facility cost reports on their website, data.cms.gov, which is a website with the purpose of making CMS data readily available in open, accessible, and machine-readable formats; and
Whereas, While this dataset enables a user to analyze some individual facility-level data by State, the dataset does not encompass the full scope of data collected from facilities and is currently limited to costs reports submitted for the fiscal years of 2014-2018; and
Whereas, CMS also collect certain cost statement information, through Form CMS-287-05 Home Office Cost Statement, from home offices that provide centralized management and administrative services to chain healthcare organizations that receive Medicare reimbursements, but this data is only available upon request by the individual facility under the federal Freedom of Information Act and often contains redacted information; and
Whereas, Increasing the public's access to the full scope of CMS data concerning skilled nursing facilities and home offices would allow New Jersey to develop and implement strategies to improve the quality of care provided in, and contain the costs of, skilled nursing facilities in the State; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. This House respectfully urges the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to increase access to the most recent and complete datasets containing cost report data for Medicare-certified skilled nursing facilities from Form CMS-2540-10 and unredacted cost statement data for home offices providing services to chain healthcare organizations that receive Medicaid reimbursements from Form CMS-287-05 and to make further efforts to increase the usability of the data for Statewide healthcare resource analysis, planning, and coordination.
2. Copies of this resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly to the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
STATEMENT
This resolution respectfully urges the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to increase access to the most recent and complete datasets containing cost report data for Medicare-certified skilled nursing facilities and unredacted cost statement data for home offices providing services to chain healthcare organizations that receive Medicaid reimbursements and to make further efforts to increase the usability of the data for Statewide healthcare resource analysis, planning, and coordination.
Medicare-certified institutional providers are required to submit an annual cost report to CMS, which report contains provider information such as facility characteristics, utilization data, cost and charges by cost center, Medicare settlement data, and financial statement data. New Jersey has over 300 skilled nursing facilities that are Medicare-certified institutional providers and required to submit annual cost reports to CMS.
These cost reports can provide valuable information that can help shape strategies to improve the quality of care provided in, and contain the costs of, skilled nursing facilities in the State. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for increased coordination and resource support in the State's health care system, especially among skilled nursing facilities, which suffered some of the country's highest death tolls at the height of the pandemic.
CMS have traditionally published the annual cost reports for skilled nursing facilities on their Internet website. These cost reports for skilled nursing facilities had been published in a raw data format, which required the use of advanced statistical software to analyze, and did not include individual facility-level data, which had only been available upon request pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act.
On July 9, 2021, CMS created a dataset concerning skilled nursing facility cost reports on their website, data.cms.gov, which is a website with the purpose of making CMS data readily available in open, accessible, and machine-readable formats. While this dataset enables a user to analyze some individual facility-level data by State, the dataset does not encompass the full scope of data collected from facilities and is currently limited to costs reports submitted for the fiscal years of 2014-2018.
CMS also collect certain cost statement information from home offices that provide centralized management and administrative services to chain healthcare organizations that receive Medicare reimbursements, but this data is only available upon request by the individual facility under the federal Freedom of Information Act and often contains redacted information.
Increasing the public's access to the full scope of CMS data concerning skilled nursing facilities and home offices would allow New Jersey to develop and implement strategies to improve the quality of care provided in, and contain the costs of, skilled nursing facilities in the State.
