CMS High Performing Facility icon: what it is, who qualifies, and what to do the week you get it
Starting September 30, 2026, CMS posts a trophy icon on Nursing Home Care Compare for facilities that qualify for the Risk-Based Survey. About 12% will get it. What the icon means, how the quarterly list works, and the first 7 days of marketing it without getting burned.
On September 30, 2026, a small gold trophy starts appearing next to some nursing homes on Medicare.gov. CMS expects about 12% of buildings to get one. Families will see it before most operators have decided what to say about it.
Here’s what the icon is, what it takes to earn it, why it can vanish, and what to do in the first 7 days if one of your buildings makes the list.
What the icon is
The trophy is the High Performing Facility Icon, and it comes from a survey policy memo, QSO-26-14-NH, that CMS issued on July 16, 2026. The memo launches the Risk-Based Survey nationwide on September 8, 2026: a shorter recertification survey, run in roughly half the time with fewer surveyors, reserved for facilities with a clean record.
CMS marks those facilities on Nursing Home Care Compare so, in the memo’s words, consumers and stakeholders can “identify higher performing nursing homes that have quality indicators in addition to the traditional five-star rating.”
So the trophy sits on top of the stars. A 5-star overall rating is the entry ticket, and 10 more checks follow.
Who qualifies
Appendix A of the memo lists 11 things a facility must not have. In plain language, a building qualifies when it has:
- A 5-star overall rating and at least a 3-star staffing rating.
- A health inspection score at or better than the median for its state.
- No actual harm, immediate jeopardy, or substandard quality of care citations in the last survey cycle.
- A standard survey within the last 18 months.
- No staffing waivers, no failed PBJ staffing audit, no failed MDS audit.
- No change in ownership since the last standard survey.
- No Special Focus Facility candidate status.
- Fewer than 2 residents over 65 coded with schizophrenia after being admitted without the diagnosis.
Every one of those, every quarter. The full breakdown, including the checks that trip otherwise strong buildings, is in our guide to the qualifying criteria.
The quarterly catch
CMS builds the list quarterly and sends it to state survey agencies. The public version goes up on the Provider Data Catalog and Care Compare beginning September 30, “updated regularly.” And the memo is direct about permanence: the icon “will remain on the nursing home’s profile page until the facility is no longer eligible.”
Two things follow from that.
The trophy can leave. A harm-level citation on a complaint investigation, a pending immediate jeopardy intake, a change in ownership: any of these pulls a building off the list. We wrote a separate piece on what removal looks like and how to plan for it, because the plan has to exist before the first post goes up.
The lists won’t match. CMS warns that “there will be differences between the facilities identified on the lists sent to states and facilities with the icon on the Nursing Home Care Compare website,” because of data transmission and posting delays. Your state surveyor may work from a list that says one thing while Medicare.gov says another. For marketing, Care Compare is the source of truth, since that’s what families see.
Who’s looking
Two audiences, and they read it differently.
Families see a trophy. To them it reads as best in the area, and the marketing they’ll trust most is the marketing that explains what it actually records: 11 checks, cleared last quarter. What families take from it, and what they should still ask on a tour, is in our piece written for families. Operators should read it too, since that’s the interpretation you’re competing with.
Discharge planners see a shorthand for a clean survey record and adequate staffing, which is exactly what they’re accountable for when a placement goes wrong. The icon gets you a conversation. What you do in that conversation is covered in turning the icon into hospital referrals.
The first 7 days
If a building of yours shows the trophy on September 30, this is the week.
Day 1. Verify and date it. Open the facility’s Care Compare profile, screenshot the icon with the date visible, and save the Provider Data Catalog row. Every claim you make from here carries that date.
Day 2. Settle the wording. One sentence, used everywhere: “Recognized by CMS as a High Performing Facility on Nursing Home Care Compare, as of October 2026.” Skip “award,” “top 12%,” and anything that implies CMS endorses your building over the one down the road.
Day 3. Website and Google Business Profile. Facility page, network page, and the Google listing families actually land on. The sentence, a plain-language line on what it means, and a link to the CMS profile.
Day 4. Hospital partners. A one-page referral sheet in the hands of every discharge planner who sends you patients, delivered in person where you can.
Day 5. Social and families. A post per facility account, a letter or email to current families. Residents’ families are your loudest referral channel, and this gives them something specific to repeat.
Day 6. Admissions and the building. An insert for the admissions packet, a line in the tour script, a lobby piece. The trophy should be visible to a family standing in your entryway.
Day 7. Set the monitor. Someone owns checking the status every quarter and pulling materials within 72 hours if it changes.
The full version of this rollout, surface by surface with wording, is our 7-surface playbook.
Where we come in
MOZART&CO. runs this as a coordinated recognition campaign: the wording, the website and Google updates, per-facility social, the lobby and admissions pieces, the hospital referral sheet, and the family communication, in one voice across every building that qualified. Status, verification date, and every live material get tracked in the Marketing Hub, so the quarterly refresh triggers an update instead of a scramble.
The surfaces are the same ones that moved census for operators before any trophy existed. Village Place relaunched after a hurricane and filled 104 beds in 4 months. Glades West admitted 30-plus patients from a hospital territory that had been cold since 2021. Recognition is a new reason to touch every surface at once. The engine that does it already exists.
If one of your buildings is on the list, or you think it will be, inquire. We’ll tell you straight what the rollout takes.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the CMS High Performing Facility icon?
- A trophy symbol CMS places on a nursing home's profile page on Nursing Home Care Compare when the facility qualifies for the Risk-Based Survey. It comes from CMS memo QSO-26-14-NH, issued July 16, 2026, and marks quality indicators beyond the five-star rating: a 5-star overall rating, at least 3 stars for staffing, no harm-level citations in the last survey cycle, and 8 other checks.
- How many nursing homes get the icon?
- CMS estimates about 12% of nursing homes qualify initially. The public list posts to the Provider Data Catalog and Care Compare beginning September 30, 2026, and CMS rebuilds it quarterly.
- Is the High Performing Facility icon permanent?
- No. The memo says the icon remains on the profile page until the facility is no longer eligible. A harm-level citation on a complaint investigation, a pending immediate jeopardy intake, or a change in ownership can remove it, and every quarterly rebuild rechecks all 11 criteria.
- Can a nursing home put the icon on its website?
- Describe the designation accurately and date it: recognized by CMS as a High Performing Facility on Nursing Home Care Compare, as of October 2026. Avoid the words award or top 12%, avoid anything implying CMS endorsement, verify against Care Compare rather than the state list, and keep a removal plan, since the status can change each quarter.
- What is the CMS Risk-Based Survey?
- A shorter version of the standard recertification survey, run in roughly half the time with fewer surveyors, reserved for facilities that clear CMS's 11 qualifying criteria. It went national on September 8, 2026. States can still run a full survey at a qualifying facility when complaints or other concerns warrant it.
Your rating is a revenue number.
Families read reviews before they ever call. A half-star difference in your rating changes how many tours you book, which makes reputation one of the most direct levers on census you have.