The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced several key updates to the Nursing Home Care Compare website, with most changes scheduled to take effect on July 30, 2025. The updates are intended to improve the accuracy, relevance, and usability of data that consumers and professionals rely on to evaluate nursing home quality.
One major change involves the calculation of the health inspection rating within the Five-Star Quality Rating System. Currently, this rating is based on three standard inspection cycles, with each cycle covering up to 15 months. CMS will remove the third (oldest) cycle from the rating calculation, citing outdated data due to survey backlogs stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and limited federal survey resources. In some cases, inspections used in the third cycle are over 45 months old. Moving forward, only the two most recent standard surveys will be used to calculate this portion of the star rating.
CMS has stated that this change is not expected to significantly alter most facilities’ health inspection ratings, with about 80 percent staying the same. However, approximately 20 percent of nursing homes could see changes—positive or negative—depending on the relative quality of their most recent surveys compared to older ones. The weighting of survey results will also be adjusted to place greater emphasis on the most recent inspection and complaint data.
Another notable update is the addition of chain-level performance data to the public-facing Care Compare website. CMS has been publishing this data on its open data portal since 2022, identifying groups of nursing homes linked by common ownership and control. Starting in late July 2025, the average star ratings for overall quality, staffing, inspections, and quality measures will be posted for each chain in a more accessible, consumer-friendly format. The change is aimed at increasing transparency into nursing home ownership structures.
A further update will be made to the long-stay antipsychotic medication measure. Currently based only on Minimum Data Set (MDS) submissions, the revised measure will incorporate Medicare and Medicaid claims data as well as Medicare Advantage encounter data. CMS believes this change will improve accuracy by capturing prescribing practices that occur outside the MDS reporting window and by validating exclusion diagnoses. As a result, the national percentage of long-stay residents reported to be receiving antipsychotic medications is expected to increase from 14.64 percent to 16.98 percent, due to more complete data capture. The updated measure will be reflected in the Five-Star Quality Rating System starting October 29, 2025.
Effective July 30, 2025, CMS will also remove COVID-19 vaccination measures for residents and staff from the main profile pages of nursing homes on Care Compare. These measures were introduced in 2021 but will no longer be displayed as standalone quality indicators.
You can access the memo here.
Compliance Perspective
Issue
On June 18, 2025, CMS announced several changes to the Nursing Home Care Compare website and the Five-Star Quality Rating System that will take effect beginning July 30, 2025. These changes include removal of the third-cycle standard survey from the health inspection rating calculation, public posting of aggregated performance data for nursing home chains, and an update to the long-stay antipsychotic quality measure to incorporate Medicare and Medicaid claims and encounter data. CMS will also remove resident and staff COVID-19 vaccination measures from each nursing home’s profile. These changes may affect how nursing homes are rated and may have implications for survey readiness, documentation practices, staff training, and quality improvement initiatives.
Discussion Points
- Review your policies and procedures related to survey readiness, diagnosis coding, antipsychotic medication use, and quality measure documentation. Make sure they support accurate and timely documentation of diagnoses and medication administration. Update protocols as needed to reflect the greater emphasis on recent survey results and the use of claims data in quality measures.
- Provide education to staff involved in Minimum Data Set (MDS) coding, diagnosis documentation, medication management, and survey preparation. Ensure staff understand how survey findings and diagnosis reporting affect quality measures and Five-Star ratings. Train staff on any changes to your facility’s policies related to diagnosis coding, medication use, and survey readiness.
- Conduct audits to ensure accurate reporting of diagnoses and antipsychotic medication use, and to verify that MDS coding is consistent with clinical documentation and claims data. Audit survey outcomes and related corrective actions to confirm that issues identified during inspections have been addressed. Review QAPI initiatives to ensure that quality of care and accuracy in documentation remain key focus areas.
*This news alert has been prepared by Med-Net Concepts, Inc. for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.*