The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a new version of the “Design for Care Compare Nursing Home Five-Star Quality Rating System: Technical Users’ Guide” to account for changes in the long-stay antipsychotic medication quality measure calculation.

The agency said effective with the April 2026 refresh, the long-stay antipsychotic medication quality measure calculation will be updated to ensure that all residents with a history of schizophrenia are excluded, consistent with established specifications.

“A subset of these residents was not appropriately excluded from the measure data released in January 2026. This change did not have a significant impact on scores for this measure or quality measure ratings. However, the scoring cut points for this measure will be reset to place providers into deciles using data from 2024Q4-2025Q3,” CMS said.

Comments or questions? Contact Patrick Connole at pconnole@parkplacelive.com.