On April 17, 2025, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS") extended the revalidation deadline for its 855A skilled nursing facility ("SNF") attachment to August 1, 2025 (previously May 1, 2025), giving SNFs more runway to comply with the new ownership, managerial, and related party information disclosure requirements.

Additionally, on April 9, 2025, CMS updated its published guidance, Guidance for SNF Attachment on Form CMS-855A (April 9, 2025), clarifying which entities CMS classifies as an additional disclosable party (“ADP”). An updated question in the “FAQ” section addresses a scenario where “Company X [is] an indirect owner of the SNF and Company Y [is] an owner of ADP Z.” The updated guidance states that Companies X and Y, in that scenario, are not ADPs purely by virtue of their organizational relationships. Accordingly, indirect owners of SNFs and owners of ADPs, without more, do not need to be disclosed on the SNF Attachment as ADPs. Instead, CMS clarifies that Companies “X and Y would have to fall within one of the ADP categories … e.g., administrative services, financial control, etc. – to qualify as an ADP.”

The updated guidance also states that companies that furnish physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language therapy, or other rehabilitation services to the SNF’s patients are considered ADPs within the “administrative services” category. Finally, companies that contract with SNFs to provide services such as dietary services, housekeeping, or laundry services to the SNFs are not classified as ADPs under the new guidance.

Although the additional guidance is helpful, CMS has previously indicated that it will be unable to address all conceivable factual scenarios to identify every potential disclosable party. The guidance reiterates that the Final Rule should be “construed towards disclosure and, if in doubt about whether additional information should be released, SNFs should disclose it.”

This article is an update to a December 2024 client alert.