(Des Moines) Auditor of State Rob Sand today released a report showing that the State of Iowa is failing to meet the federal mandate on inspections of nursing homes certified to accept Medicare or Medicaid and that Iowa is inspecting certified nursing homes at a slower rate compared to neighboring states.
The Auditor’s Office calculations find that the State of Iowa conducts inspections, on average, every 17.1 months.
In preparing this report, the Auditor’s Office used publicly available data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Specifically, the Auditor’s Office calculated the duration between completed standard inspections across all certified nursing homes to determine the frequency. This report also takes into consideration the national pause on inspections at nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic to reach its findings. Durations that occurred during the COVID-19 stoppage are shortened by 147 days – the length of time between official federal guidance to stop and restart onsite standard inspections.
You can view the full report here: Nursing Home Inspections and Staffing Report
