Nursing Homes: Additional Steps Needed to Strengthen Enforcement of Federal Quality Standards Page: 3 of 58
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United States
General Accounting Office
Washington, D.C. 20548
Health, Education, and
Human Services Division
B-278679
March 18, 1999
The Honorable Charles E. Grassley
Chairman
The Honorable John B. Breaux
Ranking Minority Member
Special Committee on Aging
United States Senate
The Honorable John D. Dingell
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Commerce
House of Representatives
The Honorable Pete Stark
Ranking Minority Member
Subcommittee on Health
Committee on Ways and Means
House of Representatives
The Honorable Ron Wyden
United States Senate
The Honorable Nick Smith
House of Representatives
The 1.6 million elderly living in nursing homes are among the sickest and
most vulnerable populations in the nation. The federal government,
together with states, plays a key role in ensuring that nursing home
residents receive adequate quality of care. In addition to paying a
projected $39 billion for nursing home care in 1999, the federal
government sets standards that homes must meet to participate in the
Medicare and Medicaid programs and has authority to impose sanctions1 if
homes do not meet these standards. In recent years, the Congress has
authorized additional sanctions, such as fines, to help ensure that homes
maintain compliance with the standards. Since these new sanctions have
taken effect, however, concerns about the quality of care some homes
provide have persisted. For example, we previously reported on
1The term used in the law and regulations to describe a nursing home penalty for noncompliance is
"remedy." Throughout this report, we use a more common term, "sanction," to refer to such
penalties. Sanctions include actions such as fines, denial of payment for new admissions, and
termination from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.GAO/HEHS-99-46 Enforcing Federal Quality Standards in Nursing Homes
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United States. General Accounting Office. Nursing Homes: Additional Steps Needed to Strengthen Enforcement of Federal Quality Standards, report, March 18, 1999; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc294769/m1/3/: accessed May 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.