Staffing hours on the cost report and the Five-Star rating

Most buildings still keep staffing stars in the DON's office and the cost report in finance. That split is expensive. CMS staffing measures and the wage-index and nursing-hours statistics on the cost report are the same hours, described twice.

When contract labor, exempt time, and non-productive hours are handled differently in payroll than in PBJ, the star moves and the cost report shows a different figure. Surveyors and MAC auditors do not have to coordinate for that inconsistency to cost you. A 2% APU penalty and a staffing-star drop are each enough.

A practical test: pick one pay period and rebuild RN, LPN, and nurse-aide hours from the payroll register, then from PBJ, then from the cost-report statistic. If the three do not tie within a small, documented reconciling item, you have a data problem that will show up in both places.

CareNumerix walks that tie-out with operators before filing season, not after the star refreshes. The output is a short memo: what the hours say, what the report will say, and which payroll codes need a home before the next quarter.