“Staffing data from January 1 – March 31 must be submitted no later than 45 days from the end of the quarter. The final submission deadline for this quarter is May 15, 2019,” said officials. “Only data successfully submitted by the deadline is considered timely and used on the Nursing Home Compare website and in the Five-Star rating calculations.”

After uploading a data file, providers need to check their Final Validation Report, which can be accessed in their CASPER folders, to verify that the data was successfully submitted, said officials. “It may take up to 24 hours to receive the Final Validation Report, so providers must allow for time to correct any errors and resubmit if necessary. Please note that the Final Validation Report only confirms that the data was submitted successfully. It does not confirm that the data submitted is accurate or complete.”

Providers that are unable to access a Final Validation Report, within 24 hours of submission should run the Final File Validation Report, said officials. “This will indicate whether or not the files were processed successfully. Providers can also contact the QIES helpdesk for assistance by e-mailing help@qtso.com. Providers should not wait until the last few days before the deadline to submit their PBJ data.”

Providers can obtain feedback from CMS about their most recent data submissions by reviewing their monthly Provider Preview Report, which is also available in their CASPER folder, noted officials. “We also strongly recommend that nursing homes run the following CASPER reports to review the accuracy and completeness of the data that they have entered: 1700D, which is the Employee Report; 1702D, which is the Individual Daily Staffing Report; and 1702S, which is the Staffing Summary Report.” Note: Learn more about these reports here.

“Nurse staffing has the greatest impact on the quality of care nursing homes deliver. CMS has found that as staffing levels increase, quality increases, and is therefore assigning an automatic one-star rating when a nursing home reports no registered nurse is on-site,” said officials. “Previously, facilities that reported seven or more days in a quarter with no registered nurses on site were automatically assigned a one-star staffing rating. Effective with the [April] update to Nursing Home Compare, the threshold for the number of days without an RN on-site in a quarter that triggers an automatic downgrade to one star will be reduced from seven days to four days.”