Are long-term care facilities federally regulated?
Nursing facilities and skilled nursing facilities are federally regulated under Title 42 of the federal code of regulations. The regulations are fairly extensive and they lay out what has to happen when the facilities get inspected and so on. They have to meet those requirements or be in substantial compliance with those federal regulations in order to receive money from Medicare or Medicaid. As far as the other kinds of long-term care facilities, there are no federal regulations, for example, for assisted living facilities, at this time. The reasoning behind it is that they really are not medical facilities. There may be legislation down the line that will regulate them but, for now, that's all basically done on a state by state basis.