A facility-initiated transfer or discharge of a resident from a nursing home can be an unsafe and traumatic experience for the resident and his or her family. To address these concerns, Congress passed the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987 to protect residents against inappropriate facility-initiated transfer and discharge. However, data from the National Ombudsman Reporting System show that from 2011 through 2016, the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, established to advocate for older Americans by the Older Americans Act of 1965, cited complaints related to “discharge/eviction” more frequently than any other concern. In addition, the media has highlighted the rise in nursing home evictions. We have ongoing work determining the extent to which State long-term care ombudsmen, State survey agencies, and CMS address facility-initiated discharges from nursing homes. To complement this ongoing work, we will examine the extent to which nursing homes meet CMS requirements for facility-initiated discharges.
