A federal watchdog agency is calling for “significant changes” to nursing home operations and oversight in light of new data on Covid-19 infection rates. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) calls on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to take action in a report issued Thursday. More […]
Category: Medicare
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Tuesday announced an expansion to certain accountable care initiatives in 2023, doubling down on efforts to have all patients with traditional Medicare in an accountable care relationship by 2030. More than 700,000 health care providers, including nursing homes, will participate in at least one of three […]
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) unanimously voted Thursday to approve its recommendation for a 3% Medicare payment cut for skilled nursing providers in 2024. This move follows the Commission’s draft recommendation discussed during a meeting on Dec. 9. Despite the proposal for a rate cut, MedPAC commissioners have noted that the industry is facing […]
The coming year will be “a bit of a slog” for skilled nursing, but operating and financial headwinds should ease over the course of 2023. That’s the viewpoint of Rick Matros, CEO of Sabra Health Care REIT (Nasdaq: SBRA), which owns 270 skilled nursing and transitional care properties, along with senior living, behavioral health and […]
A vast majority of nursing homes favor extending the public health emergency designation for Covid, and are concerned that they will be unable to meet a potential federal staffing minimum. These views, expressed in a newly released survey by the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), come in the midst of a […]
With referrals to nursing homes under pressure, thanks to a bottleneck in part caused by the ongoing staffing crisis, hospitals are urging more support for post-acute providers. The American Hospital Association (AHA), for one, has called for “law updates” when it comes to hospital-based skilled nursing facilities and inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs). AHA on Tuesday […]
“The sector has a tremendous opportunity to reimagine how we deliver care.” These are the words of Nate Schema, president and CEO of The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society, one of the largest providers of skilled nursing services in the United States. Good Sam is reimagining care in part through a $350 million virtual care […]
With the potential end of the public health emergency on the horizon, operators are seeing more of a return to normalcy – for better or worse. While labor continues to be a significant challenge, occupancy rates are at their highest since the beginning of the pandemic. NIC MAP Vision on Dec. 29 released new occupancy […]
Economic uncertainty, staffing shortages, looming federal regulations, a new COVID variant and major changes to the Minimum Data Set (MDS) are just a few of the challenges facing the skilled nursing sector at the dawn of 2023. But a new year is also a time for optimism. Favorable Medicaid policies, the growth of strong regional […]
The top quotes of 2022 memorably captured some of the biggest skilled nursing issues of the year, from “shocking” payment policies to “colossal” regulatory issues to “transformative” changes. The quotes below not only serve as reminders about what transpired over the last 12 months, but touch on many issues that are still pressing as 2023 […]
Due to increased labor costs and nationwide workforce shortages, 191,000 nurses and nurse aides are needed at the annual cost of $11.3 billion in order for nursing homes to meet a staffing minimum of 4.1 hours per resident day (HPRD). That’s according to the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and CliftonLarsonAllen, an accounting and consulting […]
It’s fitting that the most-read Skilled Nursing News story of 2022 was about rethinking the MDS coordinator role, because this article combines two themes that dominated the year: staffing and payment. Much SNN coverage this year focused on the extent of the staffing crisis, initiatives to overcome challenges, how various job roles are changing, and […]
Total expenditures for nursing care facilities and continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) fell by 7.9% between 2020 and 2021. Going back to 1970, these expenditures had only ever increased each year, according to data released Wednesday. The decline last year can be attributed in large part to the pullback in federal relief programs related to […]
by Paul Bergeron Skilled nursing providers are facing an extremely challenging operating environment, but they must keep adapting and innovating as the shift toward value-based care continues across the U.S. health care system. And in fact, providers have tremendous opportunities to seize. “Value-based care through the population health management model is the most exciting thing […]
Skilled nursing and post-acute companies — and other providers serving older adults — must raise their games to deliver services within a new health care paradigm, as payers and consumers alike demand a more integrated continuum. In particular, post-acute and senior care companies must “be the answer” as large insurance companies seek ways to more […]
Improving nursing home oversight and quality will be “top priority” for the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG), as the Biden administration pushes ahead with its reform initiatives. “My top priority is propelling meaningful improvement in the quality and safety of care in the more than 15,000 Medicare- and […]
Between the summer of 2021 all the way through May of this year, hospitals increasingly discharged Medicare beneficiaries with Covid-19 to the skilled nursing facility setting, only to drop back down in June. The proportion of Covid-19 hospitalization discharges per month to a SNF increased by 8% from July 2021 to May 2022, cresting 20% […]
Despite federal efforts to curb inappropriate medication use in the nursing home setting, national entities say the overall use of psychotropic drugs in the space remained “high and unchanged” since 2011. A report released Thursday by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) delved into the continued use […]
As one of, if not the largest nursing home operator in the country, The Ensign Group (Nasdaq: ENSG) has quickly filled turnaround properties with a robust talent pipeline – including having 30 to 40 administrators-in-training at all times – despite a historic staffing shortage. Leadership also delved into why the Texas Medicaid rate is such […]
Leaders in the skilled nursing space have increasingly seen value in creating a primary care strategy, with some intending to become part of a risk-based model as part of that strategy — especially as acuity continues to be high among residents. Operators looking to shift to such a strategy need a clear vision of how […]
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