Keeping people out of nursing facilities is especially important now, with COVID-19 ravaging nursing facilities around the country. But in the middle of this pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed weakening the Preadmission Screening and Resident Review (PASRR) rules designed to help keep people with mental illness or intellectual or developmental disabilities from being unnecessarily placed in Medicaid-funded nursing facilities and to help nursing facility residents transition back to the community.
PASRR has been an important tool to further the civil rights of people with disabilities and help states comply with the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision. CPR has a long history of working to enforce PASRR regulations through precedent-setting litigation in Massachusetts (Rolland v. Patrick) and other states. We understand just how important PASRR is, and oppose the changes CMS has proposed. On May 18, 2020, we submitted comments in opposition that you can find here, asking CMS to reconsider and revise their proposed rule and to reissue the revised proposed rule for public comment. We also created templates to help Protection and Advocacy agencies, other advocacy organizations, and individuals submit comments opposing the rule.
We will continue to monitor this proposed rule. More details on the proposal and what it would mean for people with disabilities can be found here.