As skilled nursing operators battle to elevate their place on the priority list for personal protective equipment (PPE) and other resources to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, they have to combat the forces of supply and demand that have ravaged health care facilities across the world. This includes problems with prices skyrocketing and supplies plummeting, as […]
Category: COVID-19
The federal government this week offered a glimpse into how non-emergency medical procedures, temporarily banned amid the COVID-19 pandemic, may resume in certain parts of the country. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released guidance for how health care providers should prioritize non-coronavirus care once their specific region hits Phase I of the […]
The federal government has granted Medicare Advantage plans significant leeway when it comes to setting payment rates and other rules for skilled nursing facilities. In normal times, the crazy quilt of managed-care policies and exceptions creates headaches for operators and their billing teams. Amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, widespread variations in Medicare Advantage behavior add […]
Nursing homes will soon have to start reporting all positive COVID-19 cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – and could face civil monetary penalties (CMPs) for not meeting the reporting requirements. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Seema Verma said on a Monday morning call with reporters that skilled […]
Following weeks of pressure from industry leaders, resident advocates, and the media, the federal government on Sunday night ordered the nation’s nursing homes to begin reporting all positive COVID-19 cases directly to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Seema Verma described the move as a […]
Health care providers across the continuum have grappled with major challenges in providing care for patients with COVID-19, and several states have taken steps to shield them from lawsuits related to care provided during the national emergency. Skilled nursing facilities are often included in those liability protections, but the extent to which the protections apply […]
Blanket restrictions on non-essential visits to senior living and care properties should remain in effect until the very last phase of the federal government’s plan to gradually reopen public places and restart the economy, the White House announced this week. Designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to vulnerable populations, the visitation ban for nursing […]
As the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. continues to climb, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on a way to increase reporting on outbreaks in skilled nursing facilities, CMS administrator Seema Verma said on a call with reporters on Wednesday. […]
Over the last few weeks, the concept of “cohorting” nursing home residents has emerged as a key, but potentially fraught, strategy for blunting the spread of COVID-19. In theory, the concept makes complete sense: If providers and health officials can separate residents who test positive from those without COVID-19, they can provide safe, uninterrupted care […]
The financial toll of the COVID-19 pandemic in skilled nursing facilities, though in no degree comparable to the toll in human life and health, is likely to be significant in the months to come, according to a new analysis from the professional services firm CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA). Specifically, the devastation caused by the coronavirus will lead […]
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 […]
In communities where the peak of the illness caused by the novel coronavirus hasn’t yet arrived, authorities should start designating specific skilled nursing facilities as specialized COVID-19 facilities to ease hospital capacity, according to a Wednesday essay in the journal Health Affairs. And as they look to make those designations, authorities should not wait on […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will increase its reimbursements for high-volume lab tests used to rapidly diagnose COVID-19 cases as part of the federal government’s push to expand testing access — particularly among the vulnerable skilled nursing population, the agency announced Wednesday. The reimbursement for COVID-19 diagnostic lab tests that use certain […]
Problems with securing sufficient quantities of personal protective equipment (PPE) span the health care continuum, but in the skilled nursing setting, many providers are grappling with severe shortages — even as they try to contain a contagious disease that presents unique dangers to their patient population. Widespread shortages of masks and gowns, coupled with a […]
The shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the skilled nursing setting has led to donation drives, workers making their own equipment from fabric and trash bags, and increasingly desperate searches for supplies on the part of providers as they try to cope with the COVID-19 national emergency. The search for supplies can get particularly […]
The federal government on Monday released updated guidance indicating that nursing homes do not need any additional approval before transferring or discharging residents for the purposes of creating separate spaces for residents with COVID-19 and those without the infection. In a Monday memo to state survey agencies (SSAs), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) […]
An analytics company that provides data in real time about changes in patient conditions has launched an infectious disease surveillance program in the wake of the COVID-19 national emergency, with the goal of identifying hot spots for the disease before they gather steam. Real Time Medical Systems, a provider of interventional analytics software based in […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) could formally release new COVID-19 reporting guidelines for nursing homes as soon as this week, sources told the Wall Street Journal Sunday. The publication had few other details about the exact scope of a potential CMS order, with a spokesperson telling the Wall Street Journal that “the […]
As calls for the federal government to release lists of nursing homes with confirmed COVID-19 cases grow louder, the industry’s largest trade group on Saturday urged members to report cases to state survey agencies — as well as local health authorities and family members. American Health Care Association president and CEO Mark Parkinson framed the […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Thursday suspended several rules with the goal of maximizing the frontline healthcare workforce during the COVID-19 emergency, with the result that nurse practitioners can now perform some medical exams in the skilled nursing setting. “It’s all hands on deck during this crisis,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma […]
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