News for MDS Experts

Every year, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS or the Department), Office of Inspector General (OIG) fulfills its statutory obligation to produce the Top Management and Performance Challenges Facing HHS. While the Department has made efforts to address the challenges that we identify in this document, considerable opportunities exist for further progress. This document helps the Department fulfill its mission to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans by directing the Department’s focus on the top management and performance challenges identified by OIG. For skilled nursing facilities focus on preventing, reducing, and recovering improper payments. Attached is OIG's full report.
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Happy Friday!

It’s National Handwriting Day — a good reminder that whether documentation is handwritten or electronic, clarity, accuracy, and consistency always matter.

Wishing everyone a smooth end to the week and a strong start to the next. ☀️

👉 Follow MDS Consultants for practical insights on MDS, compliance, and audit readiness.

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HHS-OIG'S Semiannual Report to Congress describes OIG's work identifying significant risks, problems, abuses, deficiencies, remedies, and investigative outcomes relating to the administration of HHS programs and operations that were disclosed during the semiannual reporting period April 1, 2025 – September 30, 2025. Advancing Nursing Home Resident Safety-Enforcement Actions to Address Grossly Substandard Care in Nursing Homes and Ensuring Nursing Home Quality of Care which includes Preventing Falls Among Nursing Home Residents. OIG found that Medicare-enrolled nursing home residents experienced more than 42,000 falls with major injury and hospitalization over a 1-year period. These falls reduced residents’ quality of life and were costly for the Medicare program and enrollees who together paid more than $800 million for the resulting hospital care (OEI-05-24 00181). OIG also found that falls are significantly under reported, so CMS’s Care Compare website does not provide reliable information for residents, their families, CMS, or nursing homes. For example, OIG found that nursing homes failed to report 43 percent of falls with major injury and hospitalization among Medicare-enrolled residents (OEI-05-24-00180).
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🎉 We’re kicking off our 2026 Education Year with AAPACN!

MDS Consultants is proud to begin our 2026 education year as an AAPACN Training Partner, starting with the QAPI Certified Professional (QCP®) Workshop in April 2026.

This nationally recognized workshop is designed to help facilities move beyond compliance and strengthen meaningful QAPI programs that truly impact resident care.
📅 QCP® | April 14–17, 2026
🖥️ Virtual | Eastern Time
🎓 15 Continuing Education Credits

🔗 Register at cstu.io/5568d2

Follow us for additional AAPACN certification opportunities throughout 2026.

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𝗝𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝟮𝟳 | 𝗥𝗔𝗜 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗘𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀: 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗡𝗙 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 & 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲

Post-acute care facilities face increasing regulatory pressure, higher resident acuity, and evolving quality expectations. Understanding how the RAI system connects to quality and compliance is essential to mitigating risk and supporting resident outcomes.

𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 𝘁𝗼:
✔️Review quality and compliance requirements within a SNF
✔️ Identify quality and compliance risk areas in nursing facilities
✔️ Discuss ways to link the RAI system processes with quality and compliance

👥 Who should attend:
Administrators, Directors of Nursing Services, Nurse Assessment Coordinators, MDS Coordinators, Clinical Nurse Managers, and IDT members.

🎓 Trainers:
Jessica Stucin and Linda Winston
🔗 Registration required to receive a personal login link.

👉https://www.mdsexpert.com/webinars-training/
Register today and strengthen your SNF’s quality and compliance foundation.

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🚨January 2026 Revisions: Effective with the January 2026 refresh, CMS will replace the existing long-stay antipsychotic medication quality measure with a respecified measure that incorporates Medicare and Medicaid claims data and Medicare Advantage encounter data to supplement MDS data. The scoring cut points for this respecified measure will be set to place providers into 10 equal deciles based on the distribution of providers’ performance. Please refer to CMS Memorandum QSO-25-20-NH REVISED for more information.
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📢The SNF Provider Preview Reports have been updated and are now available. These reports contain provider performance scores for quality measures, which will be published on the compare tool on cstu.io/78022a and the Provider Data Catalog (PDC) during the April 2026 refresh.
Data contained within the Provider Preview Reports are based on quality assessment data submitted by SNFs from Quarter 3, 2024 through Quarter 2, 2025.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗢𝗩𝗜𝗗-𝟭𝟵 𝗩𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲: 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀/𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗨𝗽 𝘁𝗼 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟮, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗖𝗗𝗖) 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝘇𝗮 𝗩𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗔𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟰, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗗𝗖 𝗖𝗢𝗩𝗜𝗗-𝟭𝟵 𝗩𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗹 (𝗛𝗖𝗣) 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟮, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺𝘀-𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟰, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟯, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗡𝗙 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲-𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 (𝗛𝗔𝗜) 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟰, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟯, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰.
Providers have until February 14, 2026, to review their performance data.
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𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘂𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆!

The discussion and questions were so thoughtful that we ran a bit over time — and it was well worth it.

A special thank you to 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗶 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗽𝘆 for sharing her expertise and helping make this such a great conversation.

If you missed it or want to revisit the discussion, the webinar is free and available to watch — be sure to check it out.

👉https://https://cstu.io/12ee53

If there are topics your team would like to explore further, feel free to reach out. We’re always happy to talk through education options that support your goals.

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