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 […]
Category: Compliance
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 […]
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 […]
Leaders at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday praised nursing home administrators and staffers for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic, while also highlighting some nagging infection-control issues observed during the first major batch of post-coronavirus surveys. State surveyors have visited about 6,800 nursing homes, or 44% of the nation’s total, […]
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed deep cracks in the supply chain of personal protective equipment (PPE) for all health care providers, but nursing homes — which under normal circumstances do not require nearly as much as they do now — have felt particular strain. In northern New Jersey, a non-profit senior care operator has been forced […]
Before COVID-19, the last major nursing home story to break into national headlines was the case of Skyline Healthcare. The New Jersey operator emerged from obscurity to amass more than 100 buildings from the Northeast to the Midwest, before collapsing under the weight of unpaid bills and operational problems. Court-appointed receivers and state officials spent […]
The top medical official in charge of the federal government’s coronavirus task force on Tuesday advocated for stricter COVID-19 controls in the nation’s nursing homes, one day after the president and vice president announced a desire for expanded testing in long-term care. “I’m not sure you could practically do testing every day,” Dr. Anthony Fauci […]
Vice President Mike Pence on Monday told state governors that the federal government strongly recommends COVID-19 testing for all nursing home residents over the next two weeks, according to an Associated Press report — but the president later in the day indicated that he could take that guidance further. Pence reportedly made the comments on […]
The federal government is considering a plan that would lift visitation restrictions at the nation’s nursing homes in three phases, according to a Sunday report in the Wall Street Journal. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would require nursing homes to achieve at least two weeks with no new COVID-19 cases before allowing […]