As part of the federal government’s push toward stricter infection control protocols in nursing homes, officials this week again called on states to take the lead on COVID-19 testing — while also acknowledging that blanket testing strategies may need to change as infection patterns continue to diverge. Each state must draw up its own testing […]
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Senior housing and care leaders again called on the federal government to more aggressively bankroll COVID-19 testing in the nation’s nursing homes, arguing that the burden will be ongoing — especially since an already expensive one-time testing strategy may not be an instant cure-all. Given recommendations from the White House and Centers for Medicare & […]
Despite fines not kicking in until early June, most nursing homes successfully began reporting newly required COVID-19 data to the federal government this past week. Each one of the nation’s more than 15,000 facilities faced a May 17 deadline for the first round of data reporting to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) […]
The federal government on Wednesday clarified that nursing home operators have a substantial grace period before they must begin submitting COVID-19 data required under a new interim final rule — while also laying out an escalating series of fines for failure to eventually report. The rule, announced last week, now gives providers until next Sunday, […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Friday released an interim final rule that, among other provisions, will require nursing homes to begin reporting detailed COVID-19 information to the federal government this week. While CMS and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) had previously announced the requirement — after weeks of […]
A pair of U.S. senators this week demanded that federal officials release a public list of all the nursing homes that have reported positive COVID-19 cases, arguing that the information is vital to preventing the spread of the virus. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Seema Verma pegged the number of facilities with […]
A few weeks after announcing a threat to terminate the Medicare and Medicaid eligibility of the nursing home in Kirkland, Wash. that sat at the center of the nation’s first major coronavirus outbreak, the federal government has put a price tag on its enforcement actions: $611,000. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) late […]
One of the country’s major nursing home trade groups is advising its members to assume that unless a person has tested negative for COVID-19 prior to admission, that patient has the virus. This is regardless of whether or not they have symptoms, according to guidance from the American Health Care Association (AHCA) released on Monday. […]
New research from the federal government indicates that residents without COVID-19 symptoms can play a key role in the spread of the virus in nursing homes, with more than half of positive tests at a facility in Washington state coming from patients with no outward signs of infection. Of the 23 positive tests logged at […]
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 […]
UPDATE, Saturday, March 14: Since this article was published, the federal government has implemented stricter guidance for nursing home visits, effectively banning all non-essential visitors with very limited exceptions. Read about the most up-to-date guidance here. The federal government late Monday released an updated set of guidelines for nursing home operators amid the growing spread […]
A new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that large swaths of the Western and Southern states lag far behind the national average for nursing home usage, while the Northeast and the Midwest surged above the pack. In 2016, 24 out of every 1,000 people over the age of 65 […]
A recurring Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at an Illinois nursing home for veterans has caused deaths, lawsuits, and political trouble for Gov. Bruce Rauner. And now a preliminary report shows that fixing the problem at the Illinois Veterans Home at Quincy could stick the state with a hefty bill. Task forces convened by the Rauner administration […]
The families of 11 seniors who died after widespread outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease at an Illinois home for veterans are suing the long-term care facility for negligence. Since July 2015, the disease has killed 13 residents and sickened at least 61 residents and workers at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy, Ill., according to a new […]
High-quality nursing homes and a healthy senior population have made Colorado, Maine and Hawaii the best states in the U.S. for growing old, according to new rankings from U.S. News & World Report. To come up with its rankings, U.S. News examined the 50 states across 12 metrics using data from sources such as the Kaiser […]