FYI: The U.S. General Accounting Office sharply undercut the Bush administration yesterday, calling the mass unveiling of monitoring data for the nation’s nursing homes “premature.” Through ads in major dailies such as the New York Times and Albany’s Times-Union, the administration launched a public education campaign Tuesday aimed at reforming the nursing home industry by making it more responsive to market forces. The public now has access to a host of information on individual homes, such as percentage of patients with bedsores. But GAO said yesterday it has “serious questions” about the information. The oversight agency urged Health and Human Services to conduct a longer review before releasing its findings, but the administration rebuffed that recommendation. As a result, GAO says, the administration is “imply[ing] a precision in the data that is lacking.” As it stands, New York State’s nursing homes scored above average as a whole. [11/14/02]