Medicare and Medicaid to require sprinklers

WASHINGTON--As those in the fire industry have been anticipating for more than a year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Oct. 27 proposed a new regulation that would require nursing homes to install sprinkler systems if they wish to continue to serve Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. CMS is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that administers federal funds to nursing homes. The proposed rule is in a public comment period until Dec. 26, 2006, said Mary Kahn, CMS spokesperson. The next step is a review of comments after which the rule may be amended before it is implemented. The timeline for finalization of the rule differs "depending on whether we get five comments or 5,000 comments and sometimes we do get that many," Kahn said. This proposed rule, however, "comes as a surprise to no one," Kahn said. Because the nursing home and fire industry were well aware that CMS would be proposing this rule, Kahn surmised that there would not be a lengthy review period. In March 2005, CMS took an "interim step" toward this announcement, when it began requiring all nursing homes that did not have sprinklers to install battery-operated smoke alarms in all patient rooms and public areas. In October of 2005, Robert Solomon, assistant vice president of building and life safety codes for the National Fire Protection Association told Security Systems News that CMS was contemplating such a regulation. (See "Experts say: "U.S. Sprinkler Mandate by 2007" in the October 2005 issue of Security Systems News.) CMS has adopted NFPA sprinkler codes. Sprinklers are already required in all new nursing homes and in any nursing home that undergoes significant renovations. Older nursing homes have not previously been required by CMS to have sprinklers. Somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 nursing homes will be affected by this regulation, although most of those homes have "partial sprinkler systems in place. The number of nursing homes with no sprinklers at all is miniscule," Kahn said. CMS estimates that there are 18,000 nursing homes in the United States. Close to 100 percent serve Medicaid or Medicare beneficiaries or both.