CMS Issues Interim Final Rule to Repeal Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities
CMS and HHS issued an interim final rule with comment period that repeals the provisions of the May 10, 2024 Final Rule titled “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Minimum Staffing Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities and Medicaid Institutional Payment Transparency Reporting” at 89 Fed. Reg. 40876 (the “May 2024 Final Rule”) due to changes made by public law which precludes HHS from implementing, administering, or enforcing certain provisions of the May 2024 Final Rule until 2034. The May 2024 Final Rule, among other items, established minimum staffing standards for long-term care facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid. On July 4, 2025, Public Law 119-21 was signed into law. Section 71111 of the law prohibits CMS from implementing, administering, or enforcing the minimum standard staffing requirements set forth in 42 C.F.R. § 483.5, definitions relating to staffing requirements, and requirements at 42 C.F.R. § 483.35 for a registered nurse (“RN”) to be on site 24 hours, 7 days per week and that each facility provide a minimum of 0.55 RN, 2.45 nurse aid (“NA”), and 3.48 total nurse staffing hours per resident day (“HPRD”). The interim final rules revises § 483.5 by removing the definition of “hours per resident day” since the term is only used in relation to the minimum staffing requirements in § 483.5. Additionally, the final rule revises § 483.35 by removing the RN on site requirement; removing the minimum requirements for RNs, NAs and total nurse staffing HPRD requirements; and reinstating the minimum statutory RN staffing requirements for long-term care facilities. Comments may be submitted until February 2, 2026 at 11:59 pm EST.
CMS Announces New ACCESS Model
CMS announced the Advancing Chronic Care with Effective Scalable Solutions (“ACCESS”) Model, a voluntary model that seeks to expand access with technology-supported care for people with Medicare. ACCESS will address gaps associated with Medicare’s historic lack of payment options to support novel technology-supported care by testing Outcome-Aligned Payments (“OAPs”), a payment option for Medicare-enrolled organizations. Organizations participating in the OAPs will receive recurring payments for managing patients’ qualifying conditions with full payment tied to achieving measurable health outcomes. ACCESS-care organizations will be expected to offer integrated, technology-supported care such as clinical consultations; lifestyle and behavior support; therapy and counseling; patient education and care coordination; and medication management. Organizations interested in participating can complete the ACCESS Model Interest Form. ACCESS participants must be Medicare Part B-enrolled organizations (excluding Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies and laboratory suppliers) and designate a Medicare-enrolled Medical Director to oversee care quality and compliance. Applications must be submitted by April 1, 2026 to be considered for the model’s first performance period beginning July 1, 2026.
HHS Unveils AI Strategy to Transform Operations
HHS released the first step in its initiative to make AI available to the federal workforce by integrating AI across internal operations, research, and public health. The HHS AI Strategy establishes five pillars to optimize AI technologies’ impact across HHS: (1) ensure governance and risk management for public trust; (2) design infrastructure and platforms for user needs; (3) promote workforce development and burden reduction for efficiency; (4) foster health research and reproducibility through gold standard science; and (5) enable care and public health delivery modernization for better outcomes. HHS invites the CDC, CMS, NIH, and other HHS divisions to collaborate in developing the HHS-wide AI infrastructure.
CMS Publishes Home Health Prospective Payment System and DMEPOS Updates
CMS published a Final Rule pertaining to updates to the Medicare home health payment rates. The Final Rule, among other things, finalizes permanent and temporary behavior adjustments; finalizes changes to the face-to-face encounter policy and changes to the Home Health Quality Reporting Program (“HH QRP”) and the expanded Home Health Value Based Purchasing (“HHVBP”) Model Requirements; and updates the Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (“DEPOS”) Competitive Bidding Program (“CBP”). The updates go into effect on January 1, 2026.
CLEAR Announces Contract with CMS to Provide Identification Services for Medicare.gov
CLEAR announced it has entered into a contract with CMS to support modernizing CMS’s identity verification for Medicare beneficiaries and providers on Medicare.gov. In 2026, Medicare.gov will integrate CLEAR’s identity platform “CLEAR1” for account creation, account recovery, and access to healthcare information. According to the press release, CLEAR1 will support CMS in implementing a secure, reusable identity that will help reduce friction, improve access, and contribute to CMS’s long-term goal of “killing the clipboard.”
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