On February 12, 2026, a bill was introduced by congress that if passed will mandate staffing levels like that of CMS’ recent but failed staffing mandate attempt. The Nurses Belong in Nursing Homes Act would require:
- A RN to be in a facility 24/7.
- An initial federal minimum staffing standard of 3.48 hrs./ppd of RNs/LPNs/CNAs with future evidence-based staffing adjustments based on resident needs.
- Ongoing funding for nursing home inspections, surveys, and enforcement to ensure compliance with staffing requirements.
- Reinvesting of CMPs supporting the recruitment and retention of nursing home workforce.
- Holding nursing homes accountable for investing taxpayer dollars in the frontline nursing home workforce.
Those introducing the bill state adequate staffing is the single most important factor ensuring quality of care in nursing homes. They also indicate this bill brings common sense protection for residents by improving their safety.
A section-by-section summary of the bill can be found here.
PBJ System Update for Submission Specs V4.10.0 and Technical Information Call Planned
Yesterday, CMS posted that revised version, V4.10.0, of the Payroll Based Journal (PBJ) Data Specifications is available for review. The data specifications for this release will only allow an individual employee to have a maximum of 22.5 hours recorded of working time per day. For any employee scheduled to work a 24-hour shift, the cap of 22.5 hours removes the unpaid mealtime breaks. Any value that exceeds 22.5 hours per day for an individual employee will trigger an error warning. V4.10.0 is effective March 22, 2026.
A PBJ Technical Information call for vendors and software is planned for February 26, 2026, at 1PM ET. CMS strongly encourages all PBJ vendors and software developers to attend this call. You can register to attend the call here.
The full article regarding this update can be found on the QIES Technical Support website.
For additional questions, please contact the iQIES Help Desk at iqies@cms.hhs.gov or (800) 339-9313.
Five-Star Rating Preview Reports Now Available
As of yesterday, February 19th, the Five-Star rating preview reports for nursing homes are available in the iQIES system. Providers will have approximately one week to preview the reports before they are publicly available on or around February 25, 2026, on Medicare.gov – Nursing Home Care Compare.
If you need help logging into your iQIES portal, please email iqies@cms.hhs.gov or call 1-800-339-9313. The Five-Star Helpline will also be available to answer questions from February 23-27, 2026, at 1-800-839-9290.
BriggsNetNews 