The Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing oversees nursing homes in the state of Iowa. (Photo via Getty Images; logo courtesy of the State of Iowa)
The Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing says it met all federal requirements for the timely inspection of nursing homes during the recently completed federal fiscal year.
During the past year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services required state inspection agencies such as DIAL to conduct annual recertification inspections at each Medicare-certified nursing home within 15.9 months of the previous inspection. DIAL met this requirement, the agency said in a press release.
A recent report from Iowa Auditor of State Rob Sand suggested DIAL had not been meeting federal inspection standards. That report, DIAL says, was inaccurate in that it relied on what the agency calls “outdated numbers and incorrect federal performance measurements.”
“I am incredibly proud of the work our dedicated staff has done to inspect Iowa nursing homes in a timely manner,” said DIAL Director Larry Johnson, Jr., in a written statement. “We expect to meet CMS’ performance guidance for federal fiscal year 2025, as well.”
In March 2020, in an effort to control the spread of COVID, CMS temporarily halted most nursing home inspections, which created a nationwide backlog of complaint investigations and annual recertification inspections.
In December 2023, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported that industry data showed the state wasn’t meeting the 15.9-month standard for annual inspections, with some care facilities waiting up to 41 months for their annual inspection.
At the time, officials with DIAL noted that the federal standards had been suspended, and that while homes were still considered “past due” for an inspection after 15.9 months, the standard was not being enforced.
Several of the Iowa nursing homes that were inspected in 2022 and 2023 waited close to two years, if not longer, for their annual inspection. For example, the Northcrest Community facility in Ames went 41 months between annual inspections. The Good Samaritan Home in Holstein waited 34 months, and MercyOne Medical Center in Centerville waited 28 months.
A U.S. Senate committee reported last year that Iowa ranked 49th among the states in its ratio of inspectors to nursing homes. The report also noted that Iowa had tried to catch up on a backlog of inspections by using temporary contractors that were exceedingly expensive, costing as much as $41,000 per inspection.
In its new press release, DIAL noted that in the 2023 fiscal year, CMS required DIAL and other states’ inspection agencies to reduce the number of past-due recertification inspections by 50%. DIAL says it exceeded that requirement by reducing the number of Iowa’s past-due inspections by 90%.
Inspection reports for Iowa nursing homes and other health care facilities regulated by DIAL can be found on the agency’s Health Facilities database website.