Washington, D.C. — Three Democratic senators are pressing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to revive a stalled nursing home ownership disclosure rule, telling Administrator Mehmet Oz the agency’s pause on the deadline has weakened public visibility into who actually controls the country’s skilled nursing facilities.
Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter this week urging CMS to immediately reinstate a January 1, 2026 reporting deadline that was suspended through sub-regulatory guidance late last year. The deadline applied to a new SNF Attachment to Form CMS-855A, which requires facilities to disclose ownership, managerial control, and what regulators call “additional disclosable parties.”
According to the senators’ letter, just over half of applicable skilled nursing facilities were already submitting the new form as of February 2026 before CMS pulled back the deadline. Industry groups had lobbied hard for the delay, citing what they called vague descriptions and reporting burdens, and operators welcomed the pause when it landed in December.
Why the disclosures matter
The form was built to crack open the layered corporate structures that have made it difficult for regulators, families, and even researchers to figure out who really owns and operates a given nursing home. Facilities often sit beneath chains of holding companies, management companies, and real estate entities, with related-party deals routing money through landlords and service providers tied to the same owners.
Roughly two of every three nursing home residents rely on Medicaid, and billions in taxpayer dollars flow into the sector each year. The senators argued that without timely disclosure, it’s nearly impossible to tell whether those dollars are reaching resident care or being siphoned through related-party arrangements. That concern echoes the kind of allegations now driving high-profile cases against operators, including a recent bankruptcy lawsuit accusing the owners of 22 collapsed nursing homes of conspiring to drain at least $17 million before the chain failed.
The letter also leans heavily on a growing body of academic research. A systematic review of twelve studies published between 2000 and 2024 found that private equity ownership of U.S. nursing homes was associated with more care deficiencies, higher hospitalization rates, and higher resident mortality, the senators wrote.
What the senators want next
The three Democrats are asking CMS to do more than just restart the clock. They want the agency to set an “expedited deadline” for full compliance, treating the disclosure regime as a tool for both consumer protection and program integrity. They argue greater transparency would help families make better-informed decisions, give state regulators a clearer view of the operators they license, and give CMS itself a sharper picture of where Medicare and Medicaid dollars actually land.
For now, CMS hasn’t signaled when, or whether, it plans to bring the deadline back. Provider organizations have argued the underlying reporting policy hasn’t changed and that operators should keep gathering the required data so they’re ready when the agency moves again. But until CMS acts, what was meant to be one of the most ambitious nursing home transparency efforts in years remains on indefinite hold.
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