The federal government on Thursday again updated its guidelines for nursing home visitations amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, warning providers that they must continue to facilitate in-person or remote visits by long-term care ombudsmen. Citing sections of the Social Security Act, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) clarified that the CARES Act or […]
Category: Compliance
The most recent set of targeted infection control surveys at nursing homes, conducted in the wake of COVID-19 outbreaks, resulted in only a small proportion of deficiency citations for nursing homes, according to a new analysis released Thursday. Just about 2.4% of the 4,175 new surveys reported as of June 24 included nursing homes for […]
Until researchers come up with a COVID-19 vaccine, infection control will form a key pillar of nursing homes’ efforts to contain the virus’s spread — and nursing homes have historically struggled in that domain. It’s a challenge that will only increase as case counts spike in certain regions, and facilities reopen their doors to visitors. […]
The number of claims for medical services provided remotely via telehealth was more than 8,000% higher in April than at the same time last year, a new analysis from the health data non-profit FAIR Health has determined. Importantly, the data consists only of claims submitted to private insurers, and thus does not include the vast […]
Citing the timeline of infection and death rates at nursing homes, health officials in New York on Monday asserted that asymptomatic staffers were a primary driver of COVID-19 cases in long-term care facilities — and not, as many have suggested, a controversial state mandate requiring nursing homes to accept positive patients. The New York State […]
Texas and Arizona have emerged as new potential COVID-19 hotspots in the latter half of June, but despite widespread knowledge of the danger to elderly residents, skilled nursing facilities in those states still face hurdles in securing testing and timely results. New COVID-19 cases in Texas have climbed significantly since mid-June, according to data from […]
The partisan sparring over the individuals and agencies that deserve the most blame for the COVID-19 death toll in nursing homes continued into the long holiday weekend. After a group of Senate Democrats issued a scathing report criticizing the federal response to the coronavirus crisis in long-term care, a trio of House Republicans fired back […]
Lengthy processing times remain the most pressing issue for nursing homes as they work to test residents and staff, according to a recent survey from a leading industry trade group. Just 3% of nursing home and assisted living facility operators reported the ability to receive same-day test results, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) reported, […]
A comprehensive testing and infection-control collaboration helped reduce the rate of new COVID-19 positives in nursing homes from 35% to 18%, a new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) has determined. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Detroit Health Department proactively worked with academics, health care systems, local […]
A pair of Republican lawmakers called on the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to investigate five states that ordered nursing homes to take in COVID-19 patients from the hospital. A pair of Republican lawmakers called on the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Inspector […]
The federal government on Friday issued an explanatory update to the temporary suspension of rules around Medicare beneficiaries’ skilled nursing benefit periods, warning that the waiver only applies in situations with a direct connection to the COVID-19 health emergency. Early in the coronavirus pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) waived the mandatory […]
Arguing that one-time snapshots may shed more light on the status of efforts to curb COVID-19, the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) on Friday released the first in a planned series of point-in-time data on cases across multiple settings. Based on a limited sample of facilities, nursing care sites on average […]
Nursing homes must resume the submission of staffing data to the federal government later this summer after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) allowed an emergency COVID-19 waiver to expire. CMS on Thursday announced that facilities must report their payroll-based journal (PBJ) staffing data for the second quarter of 2020 by August 14, […]
Long-term care pharmacy giant Omnicare entered into a partnership with the state of Pennsylvania to provide 50,000 COVID-19 tests for employees and workers in nursing homes, Keystone State health officials announced this week. Omnicare, a subsidiary of retail pharmacy and health insurance giant CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), will start performing the tests free of charge […]
In three major U.S. metropolitan areas, the mortality rate in nursing homes directly mirrored the rate of COVID-19 spread among the general population — to the point where the number of nursing home deaths in the city with the fewest total cases was not significantly higher than the same period in 2019. That’s according to […]
In the absence of a vaccine or proven treatment for COVID-19, testing will serve as the nursing home operator’s primary weapon against the spread of the virus for an indefinite period. Widespread baseline testing of nursing facilities was painfully slow to materialize, particularly during the early days of the crisis. But now that operators — […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday released an updated set of frequently asked questions designed to encourage safe visitation of residents in nursing homes. While the federal government has largely left the decision to reopen nursing facilities up to the states, CMS emphasized that it supports safe visitation efforts — while […]
Lessons from Nursing Homes in COVID Hotspots: Secure a Lab Now — and Proceed Carefully on Visitation
With the U.S. taking steps toward reopening — at varying paces in varying states –— skilled nursing leaders from the East Coast COVID-19 hotspots of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut had several pieces of advice for their counterparts elsewhere, which all ultimately boiled down to one warning. Be prepared. That includes taking steps to […]
Framing the move as an extension of existing efforts to remove regulatory burdens for health care operators under the current administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Tuesday unveiled a new office dedicated to eliminating rules it deems “duplicative, unnecessary, and excessively costly.” The Office of Burden Reduction and Health Informatics will […]
As COVID-19 initially swept through nursing homes across the country in March and April, operators and staffers had a key advantage: Just about every state implemented stay-at-home orders that kept public spaces clear for the essential health care workers, reducing the risk of infection. But as spring turns to summer, states around the country have […]
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