HHS watchdog details misuse of antipsychotic drugs in nursing homes

Tara Bannow covers hospitals, suppliers, and insurers. You possibly can attain Tara on Sign at tarabannow.70.

A pair of federal watchdog studies launched Thursday urge Medicare to do extra to crack down on nursing houses’ use of antipsychotic medicine and inappropriate schizophrenia diagnoses for residents with dementia. 

One of many subject briefs from the Division of Well being and Human Providers Workplace of Inspector Common presents a stark depiction of how nursing houses are utilizing antipsychotic medicine: as chemical restraints to make employees members’ jobs simpler, with out taking required steps to guard these sufferers. The opposite describes how nursing houses are artificially inflating their high quality scores by inappropriately diagnosing residents with schizophrenia to masks their antipsychotic use. 

This isn’t the primary time these issues have come to mild. They’ve been the topic of a lot analysis and a 2020 Congressional investigation, and the HHS OIG itself has highlighted them earlier than. Reasonably than breaking new floor, the authors mentioned the studies goal to supply extra element on residents’ and caregivers’ experiences and strain the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers to do extra to control them.