The federal government is mulling several options to recalibrate the Medicare payment structure for skilled nursing facilities as it seeks to achieve its intended goal of budget neutrality — with the aim of shutting off excess payments sooner rather than later. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) this week determined that the Patient-Driven […]
The federal government on Thursday announced a proposed 1.3% boost to nursing home Medicare reimbursements for fiscal 2022, while also raising the specter of a potential adjustment to the new Patient-Driven Payment Model. That increase from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) works out to a total gain of $444 million, according to […]
The federal government last week began recovering the extra Medicare payments sent to nursing homes and other health care providers during the initial height of the coronavirus crisis last year. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2020 doled out more than $100 billion in cash to Medicare-certified providers under the Accelerated and […]
The pandemic prompted Congress to pause an across-the-board Medicare rate cut that had been in effect since the Obama administration, but a stalemate in Washington over extending the relief will bring a slight payment hiccup over the coming weeks. While both houses of Congress have approved extensions of the 2% Medicare sequestration holiday, they did […]
PruittHealth last week announced that all 91 of its skilled nursing facilities in the Southeast region will be required to undergo Joint Commission Nursing Care Center Accreditation, with the facilities in Georgia slated to go first. The SNFs will be required to undergo accreditation to achieve the Gold Seal of Approval; accreditation from the Joint […]
The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed California attorney general Xavier Becerra as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by a 50-49 margin, almost entirely along party lines. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was the only Republican who voted to confirm Becerra. Becerra was nominated by President Joe Biden in early December […]
The top federal Medicare advisory body this week formally recommended against raising rates to skilled nursing facilities in fiscal 2022, arguing that the sector will eventually recover from COVID-era financial strains. “While the projected level of payments indicates that payments need to be reduced to more closely align aggregate payments and costs, the lasting impacts […]
The two largest trade groups for nursing homes proposed a policy agenda to address the systemic issues in the sector illuminated by COVID-19, with reforms centered on improving nursing hours, staff retention and infection control — in addition to increasing reimbursement from Medicaid, the largest payer for nursing home care, to cover the costs. The […]
The federal government’s sole attempt at linking nursing home Medicare reimbursements with outcomes is broken and requires an overhaul, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) determined. The Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Payment (SNF VBP) Model has rewarded strikingly few facilities while the majority have lost money — though the amounts involved in either direction were […]
Home health operators aren’t the only players in post-acute and long-term care looking to capitalize on a weakened skilled nursing sector: As health systems and managed care insurers look to adapt their offerings to the post-COVID tastes of their patients, home health providers may find themselves with significant regulatory and payment tailwinds as they work […]
Therapist staffing coverage at nursing homes fell up to 10% after the October 2019 implementation of a new Medicare payment model, a new study has determined — with the cuts coming primarily on the backs of contracted employees and not full-time skilled nursing facility staffers. Physical and occupational therapist staffing was 6% lower in the […]
When the overhaul of Medicare Part A reimbursement for nursing homes took effect in October 2019, predictions of audits and the potential for drastic changes came close on its heels. After all, the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) was meant to be revenue-neutral, meaning that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would not spend […]
The widespread embrace and expansion of telehealth may go down as one of the top long-term positive developments to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a pair of tech players in the nursing home space this week announced a new partnership aimed at building on that momentum. Telemedicine provider and primary care practice TapestryHealth […]
Whether or not home health providers can maintain the volume they siphoned away from skilled nursing facilities during the pandemic has emerged as a top question for policymakers and financial analysts alike. A permanent shift from SNF to home could portend financial and operational chaos for a sector already battered by COVID-19, the thinking goes, […]
The Biden administration is leaning toward the selection of former federal health official and current Manatt Health managing director Chiquita Brooks-LaSure for the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Politico reported this week. Brooks-LaSure held posts at CMS and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under President Obama, with […]
Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government has left its new Medicare payment system for nursing homes virtually unchanged since the original rollout in October 2019 — but that doesn’t mean operators and investors should assume the status quo will last forever. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and its […]
The new Biden administration has tapped Liz Richter to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on an interim basis during the presidential transition. The agency’s website currently lists Richter, who has worked at CMS in various capacities since 1990, as acting administrator. She succeeds outgoing administrator Seema Verma, who on Wednesday resigned […]
When I was 23 years old, my mother died unexpectedly of a massive stroke in her sleep. She was only 62, and there was no warning. One day we were talking on the phone about Christmas plans, and the next I was giving a police officer permission to break into my childhood home for a […]
An accountable care organization (ACO) backed by one of the nation’s largest nursing home providers on Tuesday announced a deal to expand telehealth services to its members in a push to cut hospitalizations and boost clinical coverage — during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the new agreement, the skilled nursing tech provider Third Eye […]
Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, submitted her official resignation on January 14, ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20 — and touted the agency’s work with nursing homes, particularly amid the COVID-19 public health emergency. “As the Trump Administration comes to a close, I […]
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