The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) could formally release new COVID-19 reporting guidelines for nursing homes as soon as this week, sources told the Wall Street Journal Sunday. The publication had few other details about the exact scope of a potential CMS order, with a spokesperson telling the Wall Street Journal that “the […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep through the nation’s nursing homes, the industry’s already strained workforce could soon reach a new breaking point as caregivers become sick themselves — or fear spreading the virus to their loved ones. The staffing crisis hit the national media last week, when a nursing home in Riverside, Calif. […]
As calls for the federal government to release lists of nursing homes with confirmed COVID-19 cases grow louder, the industry’s largest trade group on Saturday urged members to report cases to state survey agencies — as well as local health authorities and family members. American Health Care Association president and CEO Mark Parkinson framed the […]
The federal government late Friday released its proposed rule for skilled nursing facility payments for the coming fiscal year, which will see the nation’s nursing homes receive a 2.3% Medicare pay bump. “This estimated increase is attributable to a 2.7% market basket increase factor with a 0.4 percentage point reduction for multifactor productivity adjustment,” the […]
Encore Rehabilitation Services on Friday publicly agreed to pay $4 million to settle federal allegations that the contract rehab provider violated the False Claims Act. The Department of Justice had accused the Farmington Hills, Mich.-based rehab operator of “causing three Michigan skilled nursing facilities to submit false claims to Medicare for rehabilitation therapy services that […]
Private equity dollars have driven the conversation in skilled nursing over the last few years, as the publicly traded real estate investment trusts (REITs) looked to cut their dependence on government-reimbursed tenants. But the COVID-19 pandemic could shake that up, at least according to LTC Properties (NYSE: LTC) CEO Wendy Simpson. “We are thinking that […]
The federal government this week announced that hospitals and other Medicare-reimbursed health care providers will receive the first disbursements from a $100 billion emergency COVID-19 stimulus fund. For skilled nursing facilities that primarily derive their income from Medicare, the windfall could be significant. “We estimate an allocation of about $1.5 billion to skilled nursing based […]
While the federal government has taken a hacksaw to the regulations around telehealth services in an attempt to mitigate COVID-19 risks, one group remains largely left out of the push: physical, occupational, and speech therapists. But that could change as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) mulls the potential ways it can use […]
The federal government has already signed off on nearly $34 billion in advance Medicare payments to providers as part of a program intended to help operators weather temporary financial disruptions amid the spread of COVID-19. Initially announced on March 28, the Accelerated and Advanced Payment Program has already seen 25,000 applications, the Centers for Medicare […]
When Jonah Blumenthal, co-founder of the Pomona, N.Y.-based marketing firm TypoDuctions, first started pitching nursing home operators on the potential benefits of using social media, the response was decidedly skeptical. “Five years ago, people thought we were nuts — why in the world would a nursing home want social media?” Blumenthal told SNN recently. Engaging […]
Sabra Health Care REIT (Nasdaq: SBRA) late last week announced the sale of two facilities operated by publicly traded skilled nursing giant Genesis HealthCare (NYSE: GEN). The Irvine, Calif.-based real estate investment trust (REIT) sold the properties, both located in Montana, to an undisclosed buyer for a total price of $14.4 million — which included […]
Almost half of leaders at nursing home operators saw occupancy declines over the first month of the coronavirus crisis, according to a new survey, far exceeding the census drops reported in other segments of the senior housing and care continuum. About 49% of executives reported reduced census at their skilled nursing facilities compared to a […]
The governor of Maryland this week mandated that nursing homes follow several preventative measures included in recent federal guidance aimed at curbing the COVID-19 pandemic, raising the potential for misdemeanor charges against those who violate the order. Gov. Larry Hogan on Sunday ordered the state’s nursing homes to provide separate accommodations and care teams for […]
As the chief medical officer for publicly traded nursing home giant Genesis HealthCare (NYSE: GEN), Dr. Richard Feifer has a bird’s-eye view on the strategies that hundreds of individual nursing homes have implemented in the fight against COVID-19. Appearing on the most recent episode of SNN’s “Rethink” podcast, Feifer was blunt about the decisions that […]
A pair of U.S. senators this week demanded that federal officials release a public list of all the nursing homes that have reported positive COVID-19 cases, arguing that the information is vital to preventing the spread of the virus. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Seema Verma pegged the number of facilities with […]
Over the last month, we’ve seen entire years’ worth of rulemaking around nursing home safety, as both the federal government and individual states respond to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. These efforts have taken many forms. At the federal level, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has largely focused on removing regulatory barriers on […]
Building on individual state actions, the federal government on Thursday night directed the nation’s nursing home operators to begin setting up separate wings — or entire facilities — for residents who have tested positive for COVID-19, while also encouraging operators to use separate teams of staff members to better monitor developing cases. The Centers for […]
MONTICELLOAM, LLC provided $97.2 million in first-lien debt financing for the acquisition of an five-building skilled nursing portfolio in Virginia, the New York City-based lender announced this week. With the deal, the unnamed buyer — an owner-operator — added 856 beds to its existing portfolio of more than 1,100 skilled nursing beds. MONTICELLOAM’s asset-based lending […]
A few weeks after announcing a threat to terminate the Medicare and Medicaid eligibility of the nursing home in Kirkland, Wash. that sat at the center of the nation’s first major coronavirus outbreak, the federal government has put a price tag on its enforcement actions: $611,000. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) late […]
Nearly a third of skilled nursing operators reported feeling pressure to admit residents who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, according to a recent poll conducted by Skilled Nursing News — while nearly the same percentage have seen family members take their loved ones out of the nursing home setting due to COVID-19 fears. […]
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