Nursing Home Reinvestment Project
Executive Summary
Approximately $150 million in available funding meant to benefit nursing home residents is going underutilized. The funds are generated from fines against nursing homes. Nursing home stakeholders who are can apply for the funds to do projects to directly benefit nursing home residents, lack information and can be intimidated by the application process. States who administer the funds sometimes have differing interpretations about how the funds should be spent. And CMS regional offices sometimes like guidance about how to grant approvals.
The Innovation: We have prototyped a CMS-based webpage and related downloads to be a central repository for information for applicants and states. From our interviews we are raising some of the challenges faced by states and applicants to CMS leadership. And through our working group we hope to continue to develop tools to aid with the adjustment to new guidance and spur innovative projects.
The team is currently building a Region V working group to help our six states adjust to upcoming guidance and pilot additional tools that can be shared across all ten regions. For the CMS regional offices we hope to develop a checklist to aid their reviews.
With these additional interventions we hope to increase the rate at which the funds are spent – in FY14 States spent 14% of their budget on average. And ease states’ and the CMS regional office’s adjustment to new CMS guidance for additional reporting.
A project supported by the: HHS Ignite Accelerator
Team Members
Anna Olson (Project Lead), CMS
Lauren Anderson, CMS
Jonathan Sanchez-Leos, CMS
Milestones
June 2015: Project selected into the HHS Ignite Accelerator
July 2015: Time in the Accelerator began
September 2015: Time in the Accelerator ended
Project Sponsor
Gregg Brandush, Deputy Associate Regional Administrator, CMS, Division of Survey and Certification, Region V
