F156: Give residents a notice of rights, rules, services and charges
F156 is one of the federal requirements every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home must meet. CMS describes it as: Give residents a notice of rights, rules, services and charges.
It sits in CMS's resident rights category.
CMS Health Deficiencies file, data as of September 1, 2026. The files hold each home's last three standard inspections and three years of complaint visits.
How seriously inspectors rate it
Every citation gets a letter for how much harm inspectors found and how many residents it touched (how to read the letters). 0.0% of F156 citations came from a complaint visit rather than a routine inspection.
By letter: E 1.
What inspectors wrote
Three recent F156 citations from different states, quoted from the inspectors' statements of deficiencies (CMS form 2567). Names are removed by CMS.
Inspectors wrote, July 13, 2017, scope and severity EBased on clinical record review and staff interview the facility staff failed to provide the contact information to the independent reviewer authorized by Medicare upon issuance of a Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage for 3 residents in the survey sample of 30, Residents #25, 26 and 27. The facility staff failed to provide in writing the name of the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) and toll-free contact number to appeal and or ask questions when issued a Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage for Residents #25, 26 and 27.
Portsmouth Health and Rehab, Portsmouth, VA
Most recent F156 citations
| Inspection | Home | Town | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 13, 2017 | Portsmouth Health and Rehab | Portsmouth, VA | E |
F156 citations by state
Counts depend on how many homes a state has and how often its inspectors visit, so a larger number is not by itself a worse record.
| State | Citations |
|---|---|
| Virginia | 1 |
By inspection year: 2017 1.
Common questions
- What is F156 in a nursing home inspection?
- F156 is the federal requirement to "give residents a notice of rights, rules, services and charges". CMS files it under resident rights. A home cited under F156 did not meet that requirement at the inspection.
- How often is F156 cited?
- The CMS files as of September 1, 2026 list 1 F156 citations at 1 nursing homes, 0 of them in the 12 months to that date. 0.0% were rated as actual harm or immediate jeopardy.
- Is a F156 citation serious?
- It depends on the letter. Most F156 citations (100.0%) were rated as potential for more than minimal harm, D to F. None in the current files is at the immediate jeopardy level.
The interpretive guidance inspectors use for each F-tag is CMS's State Operations Manual, Appendix PP. NursingHomeClear reports the citations as CMS records them and is not affiliated with CMS. All F-tags · Methodology