The value of telehealth in the skilled nursing setting has become apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, with various care providers finding ways to maintain resident services despite being forced to stay away from facilities. And in one analysis that began a few months before visitors and unnecessary personnel were banned from SNFs, the telehealth model […]
As part of an effort to bolster the implementation of evidence-based infection prevention and safety in nursing homes, a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is establishing a National Nursing Home COVID Action Network, supported financially by the Provider Relief Fund. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), part […]
The COVID-19 pandemic pummeled patient volumes across the health care continuum, but for skilled nursing facilities, the sharp decline in patients has not rebounded, according to a new analysis — even as hospitals and home health see their admissions recover. Discharges to SNFs and to the home health setting fell in tandem with the decline […]
By adhering to infection control processes, particularly the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and cohorting residents, skilled nursing facilities have significantly reduced their weekly COVID-19 infection and mortality rates, a new study has determined. The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society earlier this month, examining 360 nursing homes in the state […]
Concerns about the future of skilled nursing operators Genesis HealthCare (NYSE: GEN) and Signature HealthCARE have spread to a second public landlord, though in this case, Sabra Health Care REIT (Nasdaq: SBRA) stopped short of taking definitive action just yet. Sabra late last week disclosed that the real estate investment trust (REIT) and its auditors […]
Skilled nursing operator North Shore Healthcare recently announced an expansion of its work with a Dallas-based physician-led organization to its entire portfolio, with the goal of enhancing and standardizing the clinical care in North Shore’s 71 SNFs and assisted living facilities. It’s work that North Shore CEO David Mills is particularly important because of the […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday announced $165 million in supplemental funding to states currently operating Money Follows the Person (MFP) demonstration programs, specifically citing COVID-19 as a key reason to encourage the movement of individuals from the nursing home setting into community resources. “The tragic devastation wrought by the coronavirus […]
In an update to a report issued in July, two Democratic senators had sharp words for the federal response to COVID-19 in U.S. nursing homes, arguing that the Trump administration has failed to take sufficient action to protect nursing home residents and workers from the pandemic. They pointed in particular to policy solutions that multiple […]
In the months leading up to the implementation of the Patient-Driven Payment Model, the overhaul of Medicare reimbursement for skilled nursing facilities that was implemented last year, several factors emerged as crucial areas for thriving under the new system. The Medicare rate of each facility is determined by a formula that draws from five care […]
Under regulations instituted as a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency, skilled nursing facilities are reporting a wealth of information to the federal government — on top of all the information they were required to submit pre-pandemic. And that information could end up being the guiding light for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the limitations of the current system of nursing home care in the united states, and without major changes, nursing homes are not – and will not – be able to deal with major pandemics such as the current one, according to several authors writing in the National Academy of Medicine […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday announced the finalization of a new kidney-care payment rule, but the regulation specifically exempts patients who are receiving their dialysis treatment in the nursing home. The End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Treatment Choices (ETC) Model is intended to test whether greater use of home dialysis and […]
Mercy Health Services in Maryland opened a $30 million rehabilitation and nursing care facility, operated by its long-term care arm Stella Maris, the Baltimore Business Journal reported on September 9. The facility is part of a campus in Baltimore County that houses other Stella Maris services, such as an independent living complex and assisted living […]
The COVID-19 pandemic blindsided the skilled nursing sector when it hit in late winter and early spring this year, but the field has to be willing to acknowledge pre-existing problems with infection control and make changes accordingly. That’s according to Mark Parkinson, the leader of the nursing home trade group the American Health Care Association […]
The head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Monday that the agency is withdrawing a controversial rule intended to overhaul Medicaid supplemental payments — a rule that could have put as much as $50 billion in jeopardy. “We’ve listened closely to concerns that have been raised by our state and provider […]
After the New York Times editorial board published a piece criticizing the nation’s response to the effects of COVID-19 on nursing homes, the head of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) raised several objections on behalf of the Trump administration. “The administration took early, rapid action: We issued infection control guidance to prepare […]
The COVID-19 pandemic continued to batter skilled nursing occupancy well into the month of June, according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care’s (NIC) Skilled Nursing Monthly Report, with census sinking to a new low even as the pace of decline slowed. In a blog post published September 10, NIC senior principal […]
How COVID-19 Units Helped Nursing Homes Weather the Storm — and How They Can Fight the Flu This Fall
When the COVID-19 pandemic began to gather momentum in the U.S. in spring, one of the earliest strategies for combatting the virus in skilled nursing facilities was to cohort patients with the disease in designated areas — or even set up entire facilities dedicated to the care of these patients. The Centers for Medicare & […]
Nursing homes in New York with unionized workforces had lower mortality rates from COVID-19, as well as greater access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and lower COVID-19 infection rates, according to a new study released September 10 in the journal Health Affairs. Specifically, health care unions in nursing homes were associated with a 1.29 percentage […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cast a pall on interactions across the U.S., the social needs of residents of skilled nursing facilities are mounting by the day. Many of them have been in various states of lockdown since March, when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented a ban on all unnecessary […]