Enacted as part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, the Act requires certified facilities to provide services enabling each resident to attain their highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being. It mandates comprehensive assessments, individualized care planning, sufficient staffing, and enumerated resident rights.
Implementation is through CMS regulations and the survey and certification process.
Alternative Names:
OBRA 87, Nursing Home Reform Act
Why it Matters?
This statute supplies the standard of care in most nursing home litigation, and plaintiff counsel use its highest practicable well-being language as the benchmark rather than ordinary reasonable care. It also generates the survey record that becomes evidence. The defense position is that the Act creates no private right of action, so violations are evidence of negligence rather than negligence per se in most jurisdictions, though states differ.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Does the Act create a private right of action?
What is the highest practicable well-being standard?
