Long-Term Care Survey Alert

Many nursing home providers worry that Web sites give the public too much information about their facilities, and not all of it accurate. But industry watchdogs say one site isnt keeping up with nursing home deficiencies. A report released Feb. 21 by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) accuses the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Nursing Home Compare site of omitting "tens of thousands" of violations found during complaint investigations. The report reveals that the site excludes violations found and substantiated by state inspectors during investigations of nursing home complaints. Between Oct. 1, 2000, and Dec. 31, 2001, those investigations resulted in 25,204 documented violations of federal health standards, but no information on any of these violations appears on the Web site. In an effort to provide complete information to the public, Waxman and Grassley have posted the missing nursing home information on a congressional Web site, www.house.gov/reform/min . CMS Administrator Tom Scully said his agency plans to include the complaint investigation information on the Web site in several months. (Editors Note: The report is available online at www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs/pdf_inves/ pdf_nursing_ compare_rep.pdf.)