The Senate’s landmark $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package contains a temporary 2% bump on Medicare fee-for-service reimbursements across the board, but aside from increased funding for the federal government’s infection-control crackdown, skilled nursing facilities were largely left out of the post-acute relief. The bill, which the Senate passed by a vote of 96-0 on Wednesday […]
Category: COVID-19
Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen the federal government rapidly dismantle the dense scaffolding of rules and regulations that had been built over the course decades, all in the name of fighting the novel coronavirus. Ideas once unthinkable — doctors providing consultations over Skype without fear of violating HIPAA, a blanket freeze on the […]
The $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill that was approved late Wednesday in the Senate includes $200 million in funding for a federal push to bolster infection-control efforts in the nation’s nursing homes. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has placed infection control at the center of its emergency nursing home inspection protocols, suspending […]
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise in New York City, state officials this week announced the novel step of leasing a brand-new nursing home for use as emergency hospital. New York State has leased the 600-bed Brooklyn Center for Rehabilitation and Health Care from Centers Health Care, a Bronx, N.Y.-based owner-operator of […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) late Monday approved 11 new state Medicaid waivers, opening the door for a host of emergency solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic — from an elimination of prior authorization requirements to the potential provision of care at unlicensed facilities. After Florida and Washington state landed the first 1135 […]
The federal government on Monday announced the release of an updated survey tool for nursing home inspectors, with an even stricter focus on infection-control policies — derived directly from lessons learned at a facility in Washington state that served as the epicenter of the first COVID-19 outbreak in the United States. The Centers for Medicare […]
Many therapy teams consider their services essential to nursing home residents — even after the federal government guided the sector to prohibit unnecessary visits to facilities amid the spread of the novel coronavirus. Even with the push to reduce “unessential” services, the government opened the floodgates for nursing facilities to serve overflow patients from hospitals […]
While Recognizing Dangers, California Tells Nursing Homes to Prepare for COVID-19 Patients [UPDATED]
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) issued recommendations for skilled nursing facilities on preparing for COVID-19 — and told them to prepare to receive and care for residents with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infections. The all-facilities letter (AFL) sent on March 19 tells SNFs to prepare for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel […]
Skilled nursing facilities, and post-acute providers in general, will feel pain even beyond the immediate short-term challenges of protecting residents and staff from the spread of the novel coronavirus, several experts predicted Thursday. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services late on Wednesday recommended the delay of “all elective surgeries, non-essential medical, surgical, and dental […]
Officials had already expressed concerns about the rise of private equity investment in skilled nursing facilities, citing a lack of transparency and concerns over quality. Then the coronavirus crisis hit. As nursing home operators struggle to fight back a disease described as “almost a perfect killing machine for the elderly,” several resident advocates raised worries […]
A note to our readers: As the coronavirus crisis continues to unfold, SNN will bring you the information that you need in one easy-to-access place. The weeks ahead will bring challenges both macro and micro, with potentially sweeping federal action needed to “bend the curve” and maintain our health care system’s ability to function — […]
As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. mounts, concerns about hospital bed capacity are rising in proportion — and skilled nursing facilities need to be ready to help ease the stress on the acute care system, according to multiple providers. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seemed to confirm this […]
A preliminary analysis from the federal government concluded that the sharing of staff members among multiple nursing homes — along with employees continuing to work while sick — helped to hasten the spread of the novel coronavirus in Washington state. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed the timeline of a COVID-19 outbreak […]
The federal government’s emergency coronavirus survey apparatus for nursing homes is slowly coming to life, with a current focus on those areas hardest hit by COVID-19. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on March 4 took the early step of refocusing all nursing home inspections on infection control and reported cases of the […]
The vast majority of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the country have stocks of the vital protective supplies that they need to blunt the spread of the novel coronavirus, but unless officials and the public take drastic action, those stockpiles could soon run dry. Without a change, 20% of the nursing homes in […]
The Trump administration on Tuesday announced an emergency expansion of telehealth coverage for Medicare beneficiaries amid the COVID-19 outbreak, removing multiple regulatory barriers to doctors providing remote care for nursing home residents. Retroactive to March 6, Medicare can pay for virtual consultations provided through telehealth platforms across the country, including those conducted in a patient’s […]
Genesis HealthCare (NYSE: GEN), one of the largest post-acute operators in the U.S., reported one confirmed case of the COVID-19 disease at one of its facilities, in an otherwise optimistic fourth-quarter and year-end earnings call for 2019. The Kennett Square, Pa.-based operator, which has hundreds of skilled nursing facilities and assisted and senior living centers […]
Florida became the first state to land an emergency Medicaid waiver amid the ongoing spread of the novel coronavirus, granting nursing homes in the Sunshine State a variety of exceptions intended to help providers weather the crisis — and more states could soon follow suit. Under the Section 1135 waiver approved this week by the […]
When the federal government prohibited all non-essential visits to nursing homes on Friday, in-house therapy teams and third-party companies were left wondering exactly who counted as “essential” — and whether they were part of the exempted health care workers that can continue to enter facilities. In general, SNN found that therapy services are continuing throughout […]
A sweeping ban on nursing home visits dominated headlines both inside and outside the industry over the weekend, but buried in the federal government’s recent emergency COVID-19 guidelines was a waiver of the three-day hospital stay rule for Medicare skilled nursing coverage. Under normal conditions, a Medicare beneficiary must remain in the hospital for three […]
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