For a small group of nursing facilities, the Fire Safety Evaluation System (FSES) has been a critical tool in documenting Life Safety Code® compliance through an equivalent means. The 2013 edition of NFPA 101A (FSES) left many nursing facilities without an effective equivalency tool, as the scoring methodology for the FSES became more restrictive and CMS would no longer accept waivers for areas that did not meet the equivalency.
The CMS final rule now permits nursing homes that were Medicare or Medicaid certified before July 5, 2016, and previously utilized the FSES as a mechanism to determine equivalency, to utilize the mandatory values found in the 2001 edition of NFPA 101A. The more restrictive mandatory values found in the 2013 edition of NFPA 101A will not apply.