Providing substandard quality of care resulting in state surveyors citing “immediate jeopardy” due to potential for or actual serious injury, harm, impairment, or death could result in charges of submitting false claims and/or termination from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Compliance Perspective – Immediate Jeopardy
Policies/Procedures: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Administrator will review policies and procedures for providing quality of care for residents that demonstrates substantial compliance with CMS requirements.
Training: The Compliance and Ethics officer, as well as every department head, will train staff in providing a quality of care level within each of their designated roles that ensures residents are not placed in “immediate jeopardy” of serious injury, harm, impairment, or death.
Audit: The Compliance and Ethics Officer with the Director of Nursing will personally conduct an audit of all residents’ care to ensure that they are not in“immediate jeopardy” for serious injury, harm, impairment, or death.
After a state inspection November 7 resulted in “immediate jeopardy” status for a Massachusetts nursing home, the State Department of Public Health issued an admission freeze that will remain in effect until the facility demonstrates that the“deficiencies have been corrected and that the facility is back in substantial compliance with federal regulations.”
Although the nursing home’s admissions were frozen, it has continued operating and providing care for the current residents. However, it was directed to take “immediate corrective action.”
When a nursing home receives sanctions based upon deficiencies that place residents in“immediate jeopardy,” if the nursing home does not take immediate steps to remove the jeopardy status, it will be terminated from the Medicare and/or Medicaid insurance programs within 23 days of the inspection. In this instance,the “immediate jeopardy” status was lifted, but the admission freeze remains in place.
The U.S.Department of Health and Human Services defines the term “immediate jeopardy”as meaning that a nursing home has been found to be non-compliant in one or more requirement areas, and this non-compliance “has caused, or is likely to cause, serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to a resident.”
According to Medicare’s Nursing Home Compare website, this facility has 150 beds and an overall rating of below average.
