Biden Administration Releases Data on Nursing Home Ownership

The Biden-Harris Administration has released additional Medicare nursing home ownership data to help boost nursing home transparency, safety and quality, and accountability.

The publicly available data will allow state licensing officials and state and federal law enforcement researchers to identify common owners of nursing homes across different locations.

Stakeholders can use this data to track the performance of nursing homes with shared ownership and determine if ownership of certain nursing homes impacts the quality of care that residents receive.

“We’re taking another major step forward in improving transparency in healthcare,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, said in the press release. “Researchers, states, regulators, and others will be able to use this new data source to learn more about the impacts that nursing home ownership structures have on the care provided to residents.”

The announcement builds on the nursing home and hospital data that CMS released in April 2022. The data included information on mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, and changes in ownership from 2016 to 2022 for hospitals and nursing homes enrolled in Medicare. The data revealed that more than 3,200 skilled nursing facilities saw ownership changes between 2016 and 2021.

The new data includes ownership information on 15,000 nursing homes certified as Medicare skilled nursing facilities, regardless of any changes in ownership. The information consists of details about the facility owners, such as whether it is a holding company or a consulting firm. In addition, CMS offers key identifiers that reflect groups of nursing homes with common ownership or managerial control.

Researchers, states, regulators, and other stakeholders can access the data at data.cms.gov, which will be updated monthly.

While the information is mainly intended to aid researchers and state and federal agencies, consumers can also access the nursing home ownership data. The data will be available through a link in the ownership section of Care Compare on the Medicare.gov website after the next update on September 28th.

According to the press release, CMS plans to work with consumers to gather feedback on the best way to present provider ownership information in a user-friendly manner that supports their healthcare decisions.

“President Biden has made clear that we must improve the quality of care in our nation’s nursing homes – and we are taking unprecedented steps to deliver on his call to action,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Every family deserves the peace of mind of knowing their loved ones living in nursing homes are receiving the best possible care. We are continuing to make more data publicly available than ever before to improve transparency for researchers, regulators, and loved ones.”

The data release is a part of the efforts from HHS and CMS to implement Biden’s Executive Order on Promoting Competition. Secretary Becerra serves on the President’s White House Competition Council, created by Biden’s Order on Competition.

The new data also supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of improving transparency of nursing home ownership that Biden outlined in his State of the Union Action Plan for Protecting Seniors by Improving Safety and Quality of Care in the Nation’s Nursing Homes.

Nursing home ownership can significantly impact the way a facility operates. For example, past research has found that nursing homes owned by private equity entities were associated with lower care quality and higher Medicare spending.