The House of Representatives on Friday passed a $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that contains $200 million for the federal government’s infection-focused inspections of nursing homes — while otherwise mostly passing skilled nursing facilities by. President Trump signed the bill into law later Friday afternoon. The bill, known as the CARES Act, set aside that […]
Less than 10 days ago, the Chateau Nursing & Rehabilitation facility in the suburbs of Chicago was in an incredibly difficult position: One day after 22 residents were initially confirmed to have contracted the novel coronavirus, the number of cases climbed to 46, according to local news reports. With long-term and post-acute care providers well […]
A group of senior housing and care lenders on Thursday emphasized that financing remains available in the space, but buyers and sellers shouldn’t expect business as usual when trying to complete deals during the COVID-19 pandemic. “There is capital out there, but I would say it is definitely a more limited supply and not nearly […]
The Senate’s landmark $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package contains a temporary 2% bump on Medicare fee-for-service reimbursements across the board, but aside from increased funding for the federal government’s infection-control crackdown, skilled nursing facilities were largely left out of the post-acute relief. The bill, which the Senate passed by a vote of 96-0 on Wednesday […]
Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen the federal government rapidly dismantle the dense scaffolding of rules and regulations that had been built over the course decades, all in the name of fighting the novel coronavirus. Ideas once unthinkable — doctors providing consultations over Skype without fear of violating HIPAA, a blanket freeze on the […]
The $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill that was approved late Wednesday in the Senate includes $200 million in funding for a federal push to bolster infection-control efforts in the nation’s nursing homes. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has placed infection control at the center of its emergency nursing home inspection protocols, suspending […]
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in New York City, state officials this week announced the novel step of leasing a brand-new nursing home for use as emergency hospital. New York State has leased the 600-bed Brooklyn Center for Rehabilitation and Health Care from Centers Health Care, a Bronx, N.Y.-based owner-operator of […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) late Monday approved 11 new state Medicaid waivers, opening the door for a host of emergency solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic — from an elimination of prior authorization requirements to the potential provision of care at unlicensed facilities. After Florida and Washington state landed the first 1135 […]
As both the chief medical officer for Signature HealthCARE and president of AMDA, the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, Dr. Arif Nazir has a micro- and macro-level view on how skilled nursing facilities are fighting the coronavirus. And even in these early days of the crisis, Nazir believes that the sweeping emergency steps […]
The federal government on Monday announced the release of an updated survey tool for nursing home inspectors, with an even stricter focus on infection-control policies — derived directly from lessons learned at a facility in Washington state that served as the epicenter of the first COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. The Centers for Medicare […]
The federal government on Sunday waived several key quality reporting requirements for skilled nursing facilities, framing the move as a way for operators to focus more on patients and less on paperwork during the coronavirus crisis. The deadlines for submitting fourth-quarter 2019 data under the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Reporting Program (QRP) and the Value-Based […]
The financing of skilled nursing facility deals has taken a backseat to emergency health concerns amid the coronavirus crisis, but some transactions are still moving along — while the long-term state of the M&A landscape, along with the rest of the U.S. economy, remains unclear. Over the past week, Skilled Nursing News reached out to […]
Officials had already expressed concerns about the rise of private equity investment in skilled nursing facilities, citing a lack of transparency and concerns over quality. Then the coronavirus crisis hit. As nursing home operators struggle to fight back a disease described as “almost a perfect killing machine for the elderly,” several resident advocates raised worries […]
A note to our readers: As the coronavirus crisis continues to unfold, SNN will bring you the information that you need in one easy-to-access place. The weeks ahead will bring challenges both macro and micro, with potentially sweeping federal action needed to “bend the curve” and maintain our health care system’s ability to function — […]
A preliminary analysis from the federal government concluded that the sharing of staff members among multiple nursing homes — along with employees continuing to work while sick — helped to hasten the spread of the novel coronavirus in Washington state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed the timeline of a COVID-19 outbreak […]
The federal government’s emergency coronavirus survey apparatus for nursing homes is slowly coming to life, with a current focus on those areas hardest hit by COVID-19. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on March 4 took the early step of refocusing all nursing home inspections on infection control and reported cases of the […]
The vast majority of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the country have stocks of the vital protective supplies that they need to blunt the spread of the novel coronavirus, but unless officials and the public take drastic action, those stockpiles could soon run dry. Without a change, 20% of the nursing homes in […]
Florida became the first state to land an emergency Medicaid waiver amid the ongoing spread of the novel coronavirus, granting nursing homes in the Sunshine State a variety of exceptions intended to help providers weather the crisis — and more states could soon follow suit. Under the Section 1135 waiver approved this week by the […]
A sweeping ban on nursing home visits dominated headlines both inside and outside the industry over the weekend, but buried in the federal government’s recent emergency COVID-19 guidelines was a waiver of the three-day hospital stay rule for Medicare skilled nursing coverage. Under normal conditions, a Medicare beneficiary must remain in the hospital for three […]
Public health officials and the nation’s most prominent nursing home industry leaders haven’t minced words when describing the threat that COVID-19 presents to residents and operators, and neither will we: The next few months will present the some of the most serious challenges that long-term and post-acute care providers have ever faced. The best nursing […]