A state administrator says a report from the state auditor on the frequency of nursing home inspections is inaccurate and incomplete. State Auditor Rob Sand released an analysis Monday showing nursing home inspections were occurring, on average, every 17 months — and that’s about four months beyond the federal standard. Larry Johnson serves as the director of the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing. He says the federal data the state auditor relied upon did not provide a snapshot of all the inspections that had been conducted before June 1st because there’s a lag time in completing the paperwork.
Johnson says data for the current federal fiscal year shows the statewide average time between Iowa nursing home inspections is now under 13 months.
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services pays 86 percent of the salaries for state nursing home inspectors. Johnson decided to use some of that funding to pay overtime to state inspectors, speeding up the annual reviews of Iowa nursing homes.
That’s because the federal fiscal year ends September 30th.
