FILE: A sign outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington, D.C., on February 7, 2025. Photo: G. Edward Johnson / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0); cropped.
Minnesota had 61 nursing homes with a one-star overall rating in the latest federal data release, compared with 34 in an October 2019 snapshot, a JBizNews review of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services files found.
The comparison also shows fewer active facilities in the state: 337 in the October 28, 2026 release, down from 376 in the October 9, 2019 snapshot. The records cover Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing homes, not every residential care setting in Minnesota.
The figures offer a view of the state’s certified nursing-home market, but they are not a like-for-like measurement of changes in clinical quality. CMS has changed its rating methods over the period. Facilities have also entered and left the data.
What the records show
JBizNews filtered both CMS provider-information files for Minnesota and counted homes in the overall one-star category. Of the 337 homes in the latest release, 61 had one star, 56 had two, 62 had three, 69 had four and 87 had five. Two had no overall rating.
In the 2019 snapshot, 34 had one star, 70 had two, 45 had three, 94 had four and 130 had five. Three lacked an overall rating.
The latest release was published October 28, with an October 1 processing date. The earlier snapshot was released October 9, 2019, also with an October 1 processing date. These are two specific snapshots, not annual averages.
The fine amounts reported for Minnesota facilities in the provider files totaled about $8.28 million in the latest release, compared with $2.34 million in the earlier snapshot. JBizNews checked those sums against each release’s separate penalties file, which produced the same totals.
Those amounts are the fines listed in each snapshot’s rolling enforcement record, not fines imposed during a single calendar year, and not fines collected by the government. CMS describes its penalties file as covering the last three years.
Ratings require context
CMS changed its health-inspection rating calculation in July 2025 to use the two most recent standard inspections rather than three. Complaint and infection-control inspections still have a three-year lookback. The agency said the change was intended to put more weight on a home’s current performance.
That change is one reason the two snapshots cannot establish how much of the difference reflects care, enforcement or scoring. The figures also do not establish why facilities disappeared from the active list. A smaller total alone does not prove that every missing home closed or explain whether staffing, finances, ownership changes or another factor was involved.
For residents and families, the overall rating is a starting point. A facility’s inspection findings, staffing information and individual quality measures provide detail that a single star score cannot supply.
Sources: CMS nursing-home files, October 9, 2019 and October 28, 2026; CMS provider-information dataset.
JBizNews Desk | New York
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