The federal government has opened its coffers of COVID-19 relief funds to the operators of facilities that changed hands in the months leading up to the coronavirus pandemic, but the window to strike is small. In the name of expediency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rushed out relief dollars to health care […]
The exact prescription for reforming the nursing home landscape depends largely on who you ask. An executive in the space could give you a wildly different answer than a geriatrician, and both may not agree with the perspective of federal regulators. But Dr. Michael Wasserman has held roles across all those domains, and he has […]
The average total margin for freestanding nursing homes dropped to -0.3% in 2018, according to a new report from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) — the first time that group found a negative overall margin since 1999. That said, Medicare revenue remained relatively strong in 2018, the most recent year for which data was […]
The federal government’s top Medicare official this week emphasized a desire to work closely with leaders in the nursing home landscape, pointing to industry feedback as a key driver behind a sweeping plan to send point-of-care COVID-19 testing units to the nation’s nursing facilities. “CMS obviously has a regulatory function with nursing homes,” Centers for […]
A slew of governmental and health care organizations called on the federal government to boost its share of Medicaid support — and to revoke a controversial proposed rule that would have overhauled how some states drew down federal dollars. The organizations — which represent political officials from the local to the state level and care […]
Occupancy at the nation’s skilled nursing facilities slid to 78.9% during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in April, according to the most recent set of data from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC). That figure compares to 84.4% occupancy in April 2019, and 84.7% in February, before the novel […]
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 […]
Like many nursing home operators, Signature HealthCARE has seen its fair share of strain during the COVID-19 crisis, with skyrocketing costs prompting the provider to lay off 100 corporate employees earlier this month. But its CEO has indicated that the stress on the Louisville, Ky.-based company may just be starting. “We think we did it […]
Even before a global pandemic upended the post-acute care continuum, transitions between settings represented one of the biggest pain points for operators and patients. Fresh off a $60 million Series C funding round announced last week, PatientPing has its sights set on national coverage for its software network that connects hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home […]
The federal government on Tuesday announced a long-awaited tranche of financial relief for providers that rely solely on Medicaid reimbursements, setting aside $15 billion. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will release the funds to Medicaid providers that did not receive payments from the initial $50 billion in general allocations from the Provider […]
As the federal and state governments slowly start to flex their enforcement muscles on nursing homes in the wake of COVID-19, my mind keeps going back to a concept that’s traditionally been the domain of social scientists and prison-reform advocates: restorative justice. Unlike our current crime-and-punishment system, which typically focuses on punitive measures such as […]
Lawmakers from the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Energy & Commerce called out the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for its delay on disbursing relief funds to Medicaid-dependent providers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in a letter sent to HHS secretary Alex Azar this week. “As the chairs and ranking […]
One of the first legislative packages designed to help the U.S. navigate the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic included an increase in the federal matching funds for state Medicaid programs during the emergency period related to the coronavirus. And a second major aid package under debate would go even further to increase federal dollars for […]
House Democrats on Tuesday introduced a major aid package with a provision that would indefinitely delay the implementation of a controversial rule that imperiled billions in Medicaid funding for skilled nursing facilities. The bill also would boost the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), or Washington’s share of state Medicaid rates, by 14% — up from […]
It’s certainly too early to determine what the senior housing and care landscape will look like post-pandemic, but the leader of a leading real estate investment trust (REIT) in the space thinks post-acute facilities will have an easier time returning to some kind of normalcy once the peak of the COVID-19 crisis passes. Unlike the […]
Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, skilled nursing facilities that specialize in post-acute care were a rare target of true investor excitement in the greater institutional senior care continuum. With a shiny new Medicare payment model that gave providers more financial credit for the high-acuity services they’d increasingly added over the years, and […]
Citing the steady release of grant money from the dedicated health care stimulus fund, the federal government on Sunday announced the immediate suspension of a program that provided advances of Medicare Part A and B reimbursements. The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) halted the Advance Payment Program and indicated its intention to “reevaluate” […]
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 […]
Skilled nursing operators may have woken up Friday morning with another unexpected cash injection from the federal government, but nursing homes that rely primarily on Medicaid are still waiting for their share of the pie. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Friday began sending out the last $20 billion chunk of a […]
Over the course of decades, lawmakers have built a jury-rigged structure to support the American post-acute and long-term care landscape. At the base, Medicaid supports long-term care residents who can no longer live on their own without around-the-clock care. Medicare dollars pay for higher-acuity care that seniors require after hospital stays — and prop up […]