The federal government on Wednesday clarified that nursing home operators have a substantial grace period before they must begin submitting COVID-19 data required under a new interim final rule — while also laying out an escalating series of fines for failure to eventually report. The rule, announced last week, now gives providers until next Sunday, […]
Category: Compliance
In the era before COVID-19, specialty in-house Medicare Advantage plans had emerged as one of the hottest topics in long-term care — control the payer source, the thinking went, and an operator could eliminate the financial uncertainty and pressure that comes when working with managed care plans. But with a global pandemic running rampant through […]
A bill introduced in Congress Tuesday would send an additional $500 million to bolster nursing home inspections, while implementing a host of new safety and reporting regulations, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Quality Care for Nursing Home Residents and Workers During COVID-19 Act serves as a direct response to the steadily rising death toll […]
When Congress set aside $175 billion in aid for health care facilities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal agencies in charge of doling out those dollars elected to prioritize speed over structure, sending cash influxes directly to providers with little advance warning or fanfare. On one level, this strategy makes sense. In the midst […]
The nursing home chain HCR ManorCare has — like many other skilled nursing operators — been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic still moving through the U.S. And like many other operators, it’s struggling to find the needed personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing kits, despite mandates from multiple states requiring testing and full stockpiles […]
For more than two months now, Gurwin Jewish Nursing & Rehabilitation CEO Stuart Almer has been on the front lines of the COVID-19 battle, running a 460-bed nursing home in the suburbs of New York City — a region that has borne the brunt of the coronavirus impact in the United States so far. That […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday released an interim final rule that, among other provisions, will require nursing homes to begin reporting detailed COVID-19 information to the federal government this week. While CMS and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) had previously announced the requirement — after weeks of […]
President Trump on Thursday announced the formation of a special nursing home task force that will convene in late May with the goal of better preparing the industry for future outbreaks in the wake of a staggering COVID-19 death toll. The Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes will consist of industry leaders, […]
More than a month after the federal government issued widespread waivers to expand telehealth coverage amid the COVID-19 pandemic, therapists will finally be able to provide remote interventions under Medicare. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Thursday announced that it will allow physical, occupational, and speech therapy practitioners to provide Medicare-covered telehealth […]
While the federal government has provided sweeping guidelines for nursing homes in the fight against COVID-19, the state-level response has been wildly inconsistent, according to a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation — a disconnect that may have increased the risks for vulnerable residents in certain areas. “This state-by-state approach to the COVID-19 pandemic […]
Citing current patterns of COVID-19 infection rates at nursing homes, the leader of the nation’s largest post-acute and long-term care association on Wednesday warned against states opening their economies too early — a move that he said could only worsen the crisis. “We are very concerned about states opening up too early for this simple […]
With personal protective equipment (PPE) in short supply across the country, skilled nursing facilities have felt left out in efforts to bolster health care capacity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic — even though by most measures, they are arguably on the front lines of the battle to contain the illness caused by the […]
At too many nursing facilities across the country, COVID-19 has already swept through the resident population with deadly efficiency. But others remain untouched by the novel coronavirus, and in some cases, facilities are beginning to discharge former COVID-19 patients back into the community. No matter where a given facility may be along the COVID-19 trajectory, […]
Over the years, nursing home operators have found themselves in the spotlight for negative reasons — usually in the wake of isolated stories of abuse and neglect, or tales of owners who bilked the government for money at the expense of quality care. But the industry has never been at the center of national conversation, […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday released a public database of staffing and resident counts for nearly 15,000 nursing homes, with the goal of potentially helping states make more informed decisions about the distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Using fourth-quarter 2019 data from the Payroll-Based Journal […]
New York Attorney General to Investigate Nursing Homes Amid COVID-19, With $10K Fines for Violations
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday announced a statewide investigation into nursing homes, with the support of the state’s attorney general and health department, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Under the terms of the initiative, all nursing home operators will be required to submit proof of the steps that they have taken to comply […]
The federal government has not yet released the nuts-and-bolts details of its new COVID-19 reporting requirements for nursing homes, but an official on Wednesday indicated that the various agencies involved are trying to limit the pending rule’s impact on providers. “I assure you we are working to find the most efficient way to collect this […]
Skilled nursing operators across the U.S. are grappling with the challenge of caring for patients most vulnerable to COVID-19 while staying on top of a variety of state and federal guidelines. To do that without getting overwhelmed, it’s critical to have all the various components of an operation working together — and for operators with […]
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday praised the operators of many post-acute and long-term care facilities facing COVID-19 outbreaks, calling for a deep data dive on what went wrong once the crisis passes. “This is a topic that will get a lot of appropriate analysis after the fact,” Baker, a Republican, said during a daily […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, access to coronavirus testing has emerged as an essential but frustratingly elusive weapon for long-term and post-acute care facilities. Simply put, operators of nursing homes and rehab centers can’t effectively fight what they can’t see, and every day without widespread testing capabilities forces leaders to make impossible decisions: None […]
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