On September 30, 2008, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued new voluntary guidance standards aimed at quality of care issues in nursing homes and a reduction of fraud and abuse and anti-kickback violations.  This in turn is expected to reduce the risk of lawsuits that typically flow from public announcements of nusing home violations.

"The new guidance reflect's OIG's increased focus on quality of care for nursing home residents, as well as our longstanding commitment to safeguarding Medicare and Medicaid program funds and beneficiearies through fraud and abuse prevention efforts," Inspector General Danel R. Levinson announced.

The 2008 release supplements the 1998 standards and updates them for current trends identified in recent government reports, and focuses on areas such as staffing, resident care plans, medication management, appropriate use of psychotropic medications, and resident safety.

The Supplement Standards and Trends Report can be downloaded from this site at the following links:

http://www.medlaw.com/nursinghomeguidance.pdf  and http://www.medlaw.com/nursinghometrends.pdf