New York Did Not Always Verify Correction of Deficiencies Identified During Surveys of Nursing Homes Participating in Medicare and Medicaid

The New York State Department of Health, Division of Nursing Homes and Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities Surveillance (State agency) did not always verify nursing homes' correction of deficiencies identified during surveys in calendar year (CY) 2014 in accordance with Federal requirements. We estimated that the State agency did not obtain the nursing homes' evidence of correction for 72 percent of the deficiencies identified during surveys in CY 2014.

We recommended that the State agency ensure that surveyors follow CMS guidance for verifying and documenting the correction of nursing home deficiencies in accordance with Federal requirements.

The State agency did not indicate concurrence or nonconcurrence with our recommendation; however, it described steps taken to implement the recommendation. The State agency also agreed that it did not provide documentation to support that it had verified nursing homes' correction of deficiencies for all of our sampled deficiencies.