Philadelphia nursing home abuse attorneys have voiced concerns that Special Focus Facilities lack timely inspections to validate quality of care.  This concern has now been echoed by the Chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, Bob Casey. Senator Casey (D-PA) recently penned a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to draw attention that 1 out of 5 of these underperforming facilities is overdue for inspections.  Philadelphia nursing home abuse attorneys note that many of these Special Focus Facilities have had abuse and neglect citations, and they fear that lack of monitoring of these facilities will result in additional resident harm.

In the May 9, 2022 letter, Senator Casey outlines concerns regarding the timeliness of surveys for nursing homes in the Special Focus Facility program. SFF participants represent 1% of all nursing homes that “substantially fail” to meet the standards for resident care required by the Medicare and Medicaid programs. According to Philadelphia nursing home abuse attorneys, frequent inspections coupled by public identification of these nursing homes is critical to providing families the information they need to make informed choices about these nursing homes.

Staff from the Aging Committee identified that 15 nursing homes in the SFF had gone over six months without an inspection by state surveyors as of CMS’ February 23, 2022 program report. This accounts for 22% of the nursing homes that were subject to more frequent inspections as part of SFF program during that time period. Unfortunately, these delays have are not unique to the recent reporting period.  Philadelphia nursing home abuse attorneys point out that many of these nursing homes continued to amass deficiencies, often through surveys in response to resident and family complaints