Warren and Three Senators Say a New CMS Program Will Shorten Inspections at About 1,700 Nursing Homes
The letter to CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz says the Risk-Based Survey program covers some 114,300 residents and cites an advocacy group's finding that dozens of eligible homes carry abuse flags. It asks for answers by Nov. 9.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and three Democratic colleagues told the head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Tuesday that a new program shortening nursing home inspections puts an estimated 114,300 residents in nearly 1,700 facilities at risk, according to a release from Warren's office and the letter it links.
The letter, signed by Warren, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, who is ranking member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, is addressed to CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz. It concerns the agency's Risk-Based Survey program, which the senators say limits "the number and scope of required federal and state inspections" for facilities CMS identifies as lower-risk. CMS recently released the full list of nursing homes that will receive the shorter reviews, the release says.
"Nursing home residents depend on comprehensive, thorough, and unannounced surveys to detect, correct, and prevent abuse, neglect, and substandard care," the senators wrote. "By allowing these minimal inspections, the new CMS approach weakens oversight and puts nursing home residents at greater risk of mistreatment, injury and abuse." The release highlights a line from the letter: "With the new policy in place, it is a virtual certainty that watered-down inspections will miss key deficiencies that put residents at risk."
The senators rely on an analysis by Consumer Voice, a national advocacy group for long-term care residents. According to the release, Consumer Voice found that dozens of homes on the reduced-survey list have carried an abuse tag or icon on CMS's own Care Compare website since September 2025, and that about half of the newly eligible homes would not have qualified a year ago. The senators read that as evidence that the selection criteria "do not reliably reflect high-quality care." Those are the advocacy group's and the senators' conclusions; CMS's position on the analysis is not included in the release.
The letter places the program in a wider rollback. The senators wrote that CMS adopted it "against a broader backdrop of rolled-back nursing home standards, including the elimination of new minimum staffing standards and delays to nursing home financial transparency requirements."
Warren asked CMS to provide information by Nov. 9, 2026, on whether the program adequately protects residents and follows federal statutory requirements for inspections.
The release does not say how many of the roughly 1,700 facilities are in Massachusetts. CMS's published list would allow residents and families to check whether a particular home is on it.
What remains unknown: CMS's response, how many Massachusetts nursing homes are on the reduced-survey list, and how the agency chose the criteria for lower-risk status.
