Nursing home quality initiative


Today the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released quality data about individual nursing homes in a six-state pilot project. The six states are Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington. The pilot project is designed to give older Americans and their families comparative quality data about nursing homes. Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, has worked for years to improve nursing home quality and to make nursing home quality information accessible to consumers. He made the following comment on today's development.

"I support the idea of giving people more information to help them choose a nursing home. It's easier to get information about buying a car than choosing a nursing home. Unfortunately, it's often easier to change cars than change nursing homes if you get a bad one. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is on the right track. This project has a lot of potential to help nursing home consumers. However, it has to be done right. As I've said before, incomplete or misleading information can be worse than no information. It'll be important to watch the progress and results of the six-state demonstration project before the project goes nationwide. I've asked the General Accounting Office to monitor the demonstration project and give an independent review of what works and what doesn't."