Inside Health Policy: CMS To Cite Nursing Homes Refusing Visits, Beneficiary Advocates Agree (September 24, 2020)

CMS Administrator Seema Verma warned in an op-ed earlier this month that nursing homes restricting visitors without a reasonable health or safety reason will face citations, after the agency issued guidance telling nursing homes to again allow visitation. Beneficiary advocates applaud the move. Justice in Aging Directing Attorney, Eric Carlson said in an interview, “The lack of visitation has really been detrimental to residents and family members. It’s just unbearable.” He added it’s appropriate for CMS to allow visitation as well as enforce it. “In the absence of that you get what we’ve seen over the last six months, which is facilities have an incredibly wide discretion to just make those decisions themselves.”