Starting Jan. 6, Fingerprinting Requirement for Nursing Home Change of Ownership CHOWs

The Affordable Care Act mandated that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) establish risk categories for Medicare enrollment to determine what level of scrutiny to give provider enrollment applications, which includes initial enrollment, change of ownership (CHOW) applications, and revalidations. Three risk categories were created under 42 CFR § 424.518: limited, moderate, and high. Providers in the limited-risk category are subject to the lowest scrutiny, and those in the high-risk category are subject to the most scrutiny.