Nursing home and senior living providers in the not-for-profit sector are facing significant strains from the surge in COVID-19 nationwide. Leading into the Thanksgiving holiday, operators are pleading with those in the community to refrain from gathering amid challenges both operational and financial. “Nursing homes really are at the brink,” Deke Cateau, the CEO of […]
In the early months of the pandemic, masks for medical personnel were in such short supply that providers, states, and the federal government were all bidding against each other to secure them. Gowns were so hard to come by that reports surfaced of nursing home workers using trash bags as makeshift coverings. The government attempted […]
When elective surgeries were halted or suspended in spring in an attempt to preserve hospital capacity, the number of patients leaving the hospital setting dropped significantly — and the number of patients leaving that setting for skilled nursing fell by nearly half as well. A new analysis of all Medicare fee-for-service claims data from January […]
The two U.S. senators who last year released a “secret” list of nursing homes under consideration for inclusion on a formal list of facilities with major quality issues are now calling for expanded oversight of poorly performing skilled nursing facilities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sens. Pat Toomey and Bob Casey, both of […]
The steps taken by regulators to cut red tape for skilled nursing facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic have been extremely helpful in stabilizing operations, and the financial support from various rounds of stimulus funds has kept balance sheets steady. But with COVID-19 surging again in many parts of the U.S. and occupancy seemingly flatlining, the […]
The nation’s top Medicare official took to Twitter to respond to a mainstream news report critical of the federal government’s handling of the first major COVID-19 outbreak at a skilled nursing facility. “60 Minutes” this past Sunday profiled that outbreak — which devastated a Life Care Centers of America facility in the Seattle suburb of […]
As cases climb across the country, community spread will send increasing numbers of counties into the so-called yellow and red zones — in turn, requiring more and more skilled nursing facilities to test staffers according to the September guidelines from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). As of the most recent CMS data […]
While many sectors of the U.S. need a successful vaccine to truly recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is especially paramount for skilled nursing facilities, Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association (AHCA), said on Friday. Parkinson made that point during a guest appearance on the third-quarter earnings […]
Nursing homes owned by private equity (PE) firms had COVID-19 outcomes comparable to facilities with other ownership structures, including similar staffing levels, case counts, and COVID-19 deaths — as well as deaths from any cause, according to a study published October 28 in JAMA Network Open. The study examined 11,470 nursing homes in the U.S. […]
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is working with the Department of Defense and various distributors to build a tracking system for nursing home orders of new COVID-19 test kits — and the supply for two of the major devices in the government’s nursing home testing initiative “far exceeds the demand from nursing […]
While there’s considerable variation between states, a new analysis of public data on Wednesday showed that nursing homes have reported some form of personal protective equipment (PPE) shortage in every state within the last month. The AARP released a new set of nursing home COVID-19 data on Wednesday, containing statistics on COVID-19 cases and deaths […]
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last month released its reporting rules for health care providers who received payments from various COVID-19 relief funds. And according to the professional services firm CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA), there were some curveballs in those rules, which were released September 19 and covered distributions from the CARES Act and […]
The operator North Shore Healthcare has navigated rapid-fire growth since the company’s beginning. From two locations, it has grown rapidly. Now the Glendale, Wisconsin-based North Shore has 71 locations, 60 of which are skilled nursing facilities, with its primary footprint in the Badger State. The company grew in spurts over that time period, but CEO […]
As skilled nursing operators gather themselves together to prepare for their new era in the wake of a pandemic that has upended their sector in particular and society more broadly, there are significant lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 era, according to the leader of the largest trade organization for nursing homes in the […]
One state’s ban on the use of point-of-care tests for COVID-19 in skilled nursing facilities has been withdrawn after sharp criticism from the assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). But the incident highlights the confusion around the use of the tests – and the need for clearer federal guidance on […]
In normal times, setting up a clinical trial can take nine months or more, with the actual work going on for potentially years afterwards. But during COVID-19, researchers don’t have the benefit of time — especially when working to find therapeutic options for vulnerable seniors in nursing homes. *A phase-three clinical trial for a new […]
A top U.S. coronavirus testing czar had harsh words for a Nevada directive banning the use of antigen point-of-care COVID-19 tests in skilled nursing facilities during a press call on Friday, calling it “an uninformed and unlawful unilateral prohibition.” But Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) assistant secretary for health Adm. Brett Giroir also […]
Nursing home residents cannot have their voting rights impeded in any way, and facilities must have a plan to ensure that residents can exercise that right, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) warned in a memo to surveyors this week. The memo to state survey agency directors is meant to provide clarification on […]
“Indispensable, important in the highest degree.” This is one of the definitions given for the word “essential,” when used as an adjective, in the 1964 edition of Chambers’ Etymological English Dictionary. A more modern resource, the Dictionary.com app, has a similar one: “absolutely necessary, indispensable.” The demarcation between “essential” and “non-essential” played out at scale […]
As part of an effort to bolster the implementation of evidence-based infection prevention and safety in nursing homes, a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is establishing a National Nursing Home COVID Action Network, supported financially by the Provider Relief Fund. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), part […]