United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2002-02-15 monographic deposited born digital 48 p. GA 1.13:GAO-02-279 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-279 P0b002ee180385097 f:d02279 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-279 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-279 GAO-02-279 Aid for the elderly Federal/state relations Health care programs Reporting requirements Data integrity Nursing homes Surveys Medicaid Program Medicare Program Other Written Product A02769 Nursing homes that participate in Medicare and Medicaid must periodically assess the needs of residents in order to develop an appropriate plan of care. Such resident assessments are known as the minimum data set (MDS). According to officials in the 10 states with MDS accuracy review programs in operation as of January 2001, these programs were established to set Medicaid payments and identify quality of care problems. Nine of the 10 states conduct periodic on-site reviews in all or a significant portion of their nursing homes to assess the accuracy of the MDS data. These reviews sample a home's MDS assessments to determine whether the basis for the assessments is adequately documented in residents' medical records. In addition, these reviews often include interviews of nursing home personnel familiar with residents and observations of the residents themselves. States with separate MDS review programs identified various approaches to improving MDS accuracy. State officials highlighted the on-site review process itself and provider education activities as their primary approaches. State officials also reported remedies such as requiring nursing homes to prepare a corrective action plan or imposing financial penalties on nursing homes when serious or extensive errors in MDS data are found. Following the 1998 implementation of Medicare's MDS-based payment system, the Health Care Financing Administration began its own review program to ensure the accuracy of MDS data. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-279/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-279.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-279/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-279.pdf GAO-02-279 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-279 Other Written Product GAO-02-279; Nursing Homes: Federal Efforts to Monitor Resident Assessment Data Should Complement State Activities; Aid for the elderly Federal/state relations Health care programs Reporting requirements Data integrity Nursing homes Surveys Medicaid Program Medicare Program