Health Highlights: Oct. 7, 2014

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Changes Being Made to Nursing Home Rating System

Major changes to the U.S. government’s five-star rating system for nursing homes were announced Monday.

The system is meant to help consumers select nursing homes, but has been criticized for relying on self-reported, unverified data from the nation’s more than 15,000 nursing homes, The New York Times reported.

The changes are meant to address some of those concerns and will take effect in January, federal officials said.

One of the new features will be an auditing program designed to assess the accuracy of the quality measures rating, which is based on information collected about every patient, The Times reported.

In addition, nursing homes will have to electronically submit quarterly reports on staffing levels, which can be verified with payroll data. Also, the percentage of residents being given antipsychotic drugs will be included when determining nursing homes’ ratings.

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