Minnesota

The Minnesota Department of Human Services is considering creating an online “report card” for assisted living communities in the state, according to the Star Tribune. And operators may be required to help foot the bill.

It would be the North Star State’s first standardized system reporting on the quality of the almost 1,200 assisted living communities that serve more than 50,000 residents, according to the media outlet. Consumers could use the website to compare communities on factors related to quality of life, safety and other measures.

The report card would include data from state health inspections as well as information from a new biennial consumer survey that would be paid for by assisted living operators, according to the article.

The state Department of Health already posts the most recent state surveys of assisted living communities on its website, but the surveys are conducted only once every three years and focus on compliance with basic state and federal regulations rather than quality-of-life measures, according to the newspaper. The new report card, it said, would be modeled after an existing one for nursing homes.

The tool would not be available until 2020.