What inspectors found at every nursing home

State survey agencies inspect every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home on CMS's behalf — a full standard inspection roughly once a year (no more than 15 months apart) plus inspections triggered by complaints. CMS publishes each citation in its Health Deficiencies file, which is what we show on every profile.

CMS grades each citation on a grid. The letter combines severity — potential for minimal harm (A–C), potential for more than minimal harm (D–F), actual harm (G–I) and immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety (J–L) — with scope: isolated, a pattern, or widespread. Most citations nationwide are at level D or E.

Not necessarily. A fine (civil money penalty) is imposed for past non-compliance and the home may have corrected the problem since. Fines are useful as a record of how serious and how frequent problems have been. Read the dates, then ask the home what changed.

CMS shows a red hand icon on Care Compare for nursing homes cited for abuse that caused harm in the past year, or cited for abuse with potential for harm in each of the last two years. We show it as a label exactly where CMS does.

Medicare Part A covers short-term skilled nursing or rehab care in a certified facility after a qualifying inpatient hospital stay of at least three days — up to 100 days per benefit period, with a daily coinsurance after day 20. It does not cover long-term custodial care; Medicaid pays for most long-term nursing home stays for people who qualify. See Medicare.gov.

No. The list order is CMS's star rating, then name. Homes can buy a labelled featured spot for a flat monthly fee; it never changes the order, hides citations or fines, or depends on referrals or admissions.