FY 2026 SNF PPS Final Rule Posted

On July 31, 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule for updates to Medicare payment policies and rates for skilled nursing facilities under the Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System (SNF PPS) for fiscal year (FY) 2026. CMS is publishing this final rule in …

TIP: Updated Five-Star Manual Available

Effective with the July 2025 refresh, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is implementing a change to the methodology for calculating the Health Inspection domain, shifting from using the three most recent standard health inspection surveys to the two most recent standard health inspection surveys to calculate Health …

Five-Star Technical User’s Guide Plus Claims-Based Measures Appendix (Updated)

CMS created the Five-Star Quality Rating System to help consumers, their families, and caregivers compare nursing homes more easily. The Nursing Home Compare Web site features a quality rating system that gives each nursing home a rating of between 1 and 5 stars. Nursing homes with 5 stars are considered …

CMS Nursing Home Data Sets Updated

Provider Information General information on currently active nursing homes, including number of certified beds, quality measure scores, staffing and other information used in the Five-Star Rating System. Data are presented as one row per nursing home. Last Modified: June 1, 2025 • Released: June 25, 2025 Overview •Data Table •API •Download CSV …

TIP: CMS Released QSO Memo Impacting Five-Star

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a memo that will have a significant impact on the health inspection star rating and how the long-star antipsychotic measure is calculated, among other changes:  Health Inspection Star Rating:  Long-Stay Antipsychotic Measure Methodology:  Other changes:  For more details, see the memo: …

CMS QSO Memo: Update to Nursing Home Compare

Memo # QSO-25-20-NH Posting Date 2025-06-18 Fiscal Year 2025 Memorandum Summary • Post Performance Data for Nursing Home Chains – “Chains” refers to groups of Medicare-certified nursing homes that are connected through common owners, and operators (also called “affiliated entities”). CMS will begin posting aggregated performance information for these nursing homes on …

SNF VBP Reminder: Performance-Period MDS Data Collection Is Now Ongoing

In the Medicare Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System (SNF PPS) and Consolidated Billing Proposed Rule for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) does not reveal any firm proposals for new quality measures (QMs). However, CMS does serve up a simple reminder for nurse …

SNF QRP Quick Reference Guide

An updated Quick Reference Guide is now available. The Quick Reference Guide provides high-level information on the SNF Quality Reporting Program, including frequently asked questions and helpful links. PAC-SNF-QuickReferenceGuide-20250508 (PDF) From https://www.cms.gov/medicare/quality/snf-quality-reporting-program/submission-deadlines

SNF QRP Again Takes Center-Stage in the FY 2026 SNF PPS Proposed Rule

In the Medicare Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System (SNF PPS) and Consolidated Billing Proposed Rule for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, officially published on April 30, 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) offers a mostly positive update to the fee-for-service (FFS) Part A payment rates, projecting that …

SNF VBP QMs: What’s Coming Online to Impact Payment—and What’s Proposed

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) does not propose any new quality measures (QMs) for the pay-for-performance Skilled Nursing Value-Based Purchasing program (SNF VBP) in the Medicare Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System (SNF PPS) and Consolidated Billing Proposed Rule for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026. However, three QMs …