While the COVID-19 crisis in nursing homes may feel like a lifetime for staffers and family members, the CEO of a major non-profit provider in New York City warned that the challenges are only beginning. Daniel Reingold, chief executive of the Bronx, N.Y.-based RiverSpring Health, described the first eight weeks of the coronavirus pandemic, dating […]
Over the holiday weekend, the Associated Press published an article on the frustratingly slow progress of universal COVID-19 testing in nursing homes. The news agency rightfully pointed out that due to the logistical challenges of supplying and executing 1.3 million tests for each of the nation’s nursing home residents, such a task would be difficult […]
The federal government last week cautiously began laying formal groundwork for reopening the nation’s nursing homes, which have been under COVID-19 lockdown orders since the middle of March. But many experts both inside and outside the industry have asserted that nursing facilities can’t even think about returning to normalcy without substantially more financial and material […]
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) watchdog arm added multiple probes of nursing homes’ response to COVID-19 to its list of top 2020 priorities, with a particular focus on infection control. The HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) last Friday announced two coronavirus-related investigations as part of its ongoing 2020 Work Plan […]
The deadline for nursing home industry stakeholders to apply for a spot on the federal government’s special commission on safety and quality passed last weekend, but not everyone who threw their hats into the ring will win a seat — and the problems facing the industry run deeper than any one group could solve in […]
The coordinator of the White House Coronavirus Task Force on Friday defended the federal government’s progress in encouraging universal COVID-19 testing in nursing homes, asserting that the nation has the capacity to test more people than currently live in long-term care facilities. “We only have a million nursing home residents,” Dr. Deborah Birx said during […]
The federal government on Friday announced the distribution of almost $4.9 billion in COVID-19 relief funds directly to skilled nursing facilities, the first specific tranche of stimulus money for the industry released since the start of the pandemic. Each skilled nursing facility in the country will receive a baseline paymentof $50,000, plus an additional $2,500 […]
When Renee Lohman, the founder and former CEO of the CareWell Urgent Care chain of clinics in Massachusetts, was seeking a new opportunity in health care, she didn’t have to look far past her own experience with a family member in a skilled nursing facility. “I was pretty well stunned by the 1970s physical plant,” […]
Differences in nursing homes’ federal quality ratings and profit status have no bearing on the probability of COVID-19 infections, a University of Chicago researcher said during testimony before the U.S. Senate on Thursday — but preliminary data does indicate a strong connection between race and coronavirus outbreaks. “Nursing homes are often a reflection of the […]
Despite fines not kicking in until early June, most nursing homes successfully began reporting newly required COVID-19 data to the federal government this past week. Each one of the nation’s more than 15,000 facilities faced a May 17 deadline for the first round of data reporting to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) […]
The nation’s largest organization representing nursing homes on Wednesday pegged the one-time cost of testing each resident and staff member in the United States at $440 million, arguing that substantially more funding for long-term care will be necessary to meet more stringent testing mandates. The American Health Care Association arrived at that figure by adding […]
One day after the federal government released tentative guidance for easing visitation restrictions at the nation’s nursing homes, the CEO of one of the top providers in the space cautioned that it’s still too early to consider widespread reopening. “We expect that to continue at least for another month or two, even though there are […]
Skilled nursing telehealth provider Call9 last year became another casualty of a central tension between innovation and reality: The law often takes years to catch up to new technology. But a crisis can accelerate the glacial rule-making process, and amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government erased decades of telehealth law in a matter of […]
ProMedica saw improvement in its HCR ManorCare nursing home business line during the first quarter of 2020, though the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic remains a long-term unknown for the health system. The Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica pulled in $17.1 million in income associated with its ManorCare business to start 2020, according to its most […]
The Federal Trade Commission late last week warned operators of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities that residents’ stimulus checks cannot be counted as resources for Medicaid purposes. Citing the text of the CARES Act, the FTC affirmed that the one-time stimulus payments of up to $1,200 count as tax credits and not “resources” […]
Several weeks after vowing to pursue serious penalties against nursing homes with COVID-19 deaths, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo seemingly backed away from that threat in a Sunday press conference. Asked by a reporter about how the families of nursing home residents who died from the coronavirus can pursue justice for their loved ones, Cuomo […]
As deaths in the state’s nursing homes mounted, and calls for action grew louder, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week issued an aggressive executive order requiring facilities to test all staffers for COVID-19 twice per week — under the threat of license revocation and penalties that start at $2,000 and jump to $10,000 per […]
The federal government on Thursday unveiled the nomination process for a recently announced commission on nursing home safety in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic — but interested parties have only until May 22 to throw their hats in the ring. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has partnered with an independent contractor, […]
As more and more states roll out aggressive COVID-19 testing plans for nursing homes, operators have claimed that they can’t meet the goals — such as a New York edict to test all staff twice per week — without significant help from the government. Calls for mandatory testing from the White House remain only recommendations, […]
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Seema Verma on Thursday confirmed that newly required COVID-19 data will eventually appear on Nursing Home Compare, with the first public information expected to be released by the end of this month. “Ultimately, it will go on Nursing Home Compare, so that people can look up the […]