CMS Five-Star

Survey-safe staffing means every clinician in your building — employed or contract — is fully credentialed, currently licensed, screened against the OIG exclusion list, and accounted for in your PBJ file. The federal hours-per-resident-day mandate was repealed effective February 2026. The survey tags and the Five-Star staffing measures that judge […]

“Improve staffing” is a resolution, not a plan. The CMS staffing rating is a 380-point score built from six measures, scored on deciles, with published cut points — which means the distance between your star and the next one is a specific, knowable number, and some points cost far less […]

Most administrators believe contract and agency clinicians sit outside their nursing home’s turnover rate. CMS says otherwise, in writing: agency staff are counted the same as employees if they work enough hours to be eligible. What decides it isn’t who signs their paycheck — it’s how many hours they worked […]

Yes — agency and contract clinicians count toward your nursing home’s turnover rate, the same as employees. CMS puts it plainly: both are included if they work enough hours to be eligible. What decides it isn’t who signs their paycheck. It’s how many hours they worked and whether they came […]

Your CMS Five-Star staffing rating is built from six measures, all computed from the payroll-based staffing data you already report to Medicare — two on registered nurse and total nurse hours, one on weekend coverage, and three on turnover. Roughly a third of the score isn’t about hours at all. […]