PBJ: NOT peanut butter and jelly: We need to learn this acronym: It's the payroll data collection system by CMS. Coming soon!

CMS is moving forward in a very real way with it's payroll collection system to compute the staffing star rating.  The manual is here.  WE ALL NEED To READ THIS.  NOTE I RARELY USE CAPS.  Here's some of what it says:

1. 1.2  Submission Timeliness and Accuracy
   Staffing and census data will be collected quarterly, and is required to be timely and accurate.  
   
   0. 
      Report Quarter: Staffing and census data will be collected for each fiscal quarter. Staffing data includes the number of hours worked by each staff member each day within a quarter. Census data includes the facility’s census on the last day of each of the three months in a quarter.
      
       
      
      

      Deadline: Submissions must be received by the end of the 45th calendar day (11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time) after the last day in each fiscal quarter in order to be considered timely. Facilities may enter and submit data at any frequency throughout a quarter. The last accepted submission received before the deadline will be considered the facility’s final submission. Facilities may view their data submitted through Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reports (CASPER). Note: The PBJ system will accept submissions after the deadline. However, these submissions will not be considered timely and will not be used to calculate a facility’s staffing measures.
      Accuracy: Staffing information is required to be an accurate and complete submission of a facility’s staffing records. CMS will conduct audits to assess a facility’s compliance related to this requirement.
      
      Facilities that do not meet these requirements will be considered noncompliant and subject to enforcement actions by CMS. 
      
      
      

      Submission of staffing information through PBJ will be accessed through the Quality Improvement & Evaluation System (QIES). To connect to PBJ through QIES you must have a CMSnet user ID. Most long term care facilities will already have connectivity to QIES and CMSNet through submitting minimum data set (MDS) or other CMS data.
      Individuals at facilities, vendors (e.g., payroll vendors), and/or corporate staff will need to register to submit data into the PBJ system. This is very similar to the process that has been in place with MDS data for years, and was recently updated to support both electronic plan of correct (ePOC) and hospice data submissions.
      
      Registration for the PBJ system through QIES will begin in August 2015 for facilities that will submit data on a voluntary basis starting October 1, 2015 only. CMS will communicate more information at that time. Facilities that will not be submitting data voluntarily should not register at this time. 
      
      The webpage is here.