Michigan Pilot State for CMS Risk-Based Surveys (SNF)

In early 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began a pilot study of risk based recertification surveys. CMS recently announced they will expand the pilot to include additional states and lengthen the study time. CMS shared the following details: “CMS is testing a risk-based survey (RBS) approach that allows consistently higher-quality facilities to receive a more focused survey that takes less time and resources than the traditional standard recertification survey, while ensuring compliance with health and safety standards. Higher quality could be indicated by a history of fewer citations for noncompliance, higher staffing, fewer hospitalizations and other characteristics (such as no citations related to resident harm or abuse, no pending investigations for residents at immediate jeopardy for serious harm, compliance with staffing and data submission requirements). The number of nursing homes that could meet these criteria would be limited, such as up to 10% of nursing homes within a state.”

Michigan has been accepted as a pilot state under this expansion. We anticipate that members may receive a risk-based survey. Please email Cathy Sunlin if you believe you are receiving a pilot RBS to aid in gathering feedback on the process.