Health Care Financing Administration--requirements for certification of Medicare and Medicaid long term care facilities with repeat deficiencies. Proposed rule.

The proposed amendments would eliminate current requirements which automatically prohibit renewal of provider agreements with long term care facilities if the same deficiencies persist through successive certification surveys. The purpose is to make the rules for skilled nursing and intermediate care facilities consistent with rules governing other providers and to provide an equitable and comprehensive evaluation of an institution's overall health and safety conditions. These regulations would serve to protect patients from transfer and related problems that would result from termination where there is no danger to the health and safety of the patients.