Flaws with the Medicaid redetermination process are leading to an increasing number of existing nursing home residents being found ineligible for Medicaid coverage — creating headaches for nursing homes. This view is held by officials at several state health care associations, who spoke to Skilled Nursing News. Montana, for one, has Medicaid redetermination information being […]
CMS
The year ahead for Sabra Health Care REIT (Nasdaq: SBRA) presents a “terrific” opportunity for improved margins and potential dealmaking, with eyes on multiple asset classes, according to Sabra CEO Rick Matros. While the California-based real estate investment trust (REIT) has focused in the past couple years on diversifying its portfolio – namely adding behavioral […]
Health care settings, including the nursing home sector, performed worse than expected for about half of the federal government’s quality measures during the Covid-19 pandemic, although key measures such as rehospitalization rates for short-stay residents did surprisingly better, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported Wednesday. Overall, the pandemic had major impacts on […]
States are seeing in real time what a federal minimum staffing mandate may cost them, as a disagreement between Connecticut and its nursing homes has come to a head. The state owes its nursing homes $55 million for staffing requirements imposed between March 2023 and this past January when an enhanced version of the directive […]
Survey backlogs have caused headaches for nursing homes, and Delaware is one state that is using third party contractors to successfully drastically reduce the backlog in a move that is being applauded by nursing home operators. Delaware contracted with Healthcare Management Solutions to help clear its backlog of nursing home and assisted living surveys, doubling […]
Mark Parkinson, CEO and president of the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), on Tuesday announced plans for retirement after 13 years with the association, and leading its members through the pandemic. Parkinson plans to stay on until Jan. 15 of next year, as the association launches its search for […]
Soaring costs associated with skilled nursing – and problematic payer sources – are making it harder for continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) to provide such labor intensive post-acute care. CCRCs have to ask themselves some hard questions when it comes to what services they can reasonably offer, and if it’s worth it to keep open […]
The volume of non-compliant fines quadrupled in the post-pandemic period between 2020 and 2022, with a staggering 36,370 such fines being issued to nursing homes, costing the industry a total of $560 million nationwide, according to the 2024 Marcum Three-Year Nursing Home Statistical Review. The high cost to the sector from fines was despite the […]
As Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. (NYSE: OHI) advanced on its restructuring efforts at 2023’s end, company executives said that they were finally able to have a better grasp on their outlook for 2024. And, while the company’s current fundamentals were looking strong, the looming federal staffing mandate might obscure the path forward for the sector […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is placing limits on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in denials of claims related to Medicare Advantage plans, and adding more guidance to health care providers on post-acute care admissions. The agency issued an FAQ Tuesday to address concerns related to coverage criteria and utilization […]
Piece by piece, nursing home operators are seeing stricter government oversight of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, a welcome relief given that partnerships with such managed care plans have become a huge source of administrative burden for providers in the sector, especially as workforce shortages persist. Most recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) […]
CMS isn’t expected to finalize the minimum staffing proposal until the summer at the earliest, with the agency having to wade through more than 40,000 comments before moving forward with the rule. The voices of skilled nursing providers, along with coalition partners like the American Hospital Association, will hopefully have been heard by CMS and […]
Acquisitions and localized growth, along with the looming federal minimum staffing proposal and legal settlements were top of mind for executives of the Ensign Group (Nasdaq: ENSG) as the California-based organization closed out the year. Managed care revenue and census increased during the quarter by 12.3% and 3.5% respectively, compared to the prior year’s quarter, […]
Nursing home operators can expect to see a lot more regulatory activity in the next few months, with rules and regulations being finalized prior to a potential presidential administration change, with that administration taking office in 2025. A slew of proposed and finalized rules were issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) […]
As nursing home operators rethink workforce initiatives in the midst of recovering from the pandemic’s devastating labor losses and a looming federal minimum staffing proposal, it’s crucial to listen to what nurses need from their employer and what they hope to see from the sector in the future. Workforce success in 2024 may lie in […]
Two more nursing homes in New Jersey have their Medicaid funding suspended following allegations of massive fraud by the owners related to their New York facilities. Deptford Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, and Hammonton Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare will lose their Medicaid funding on May 24, according to the Office of the State Comptroller […]
Iowa nursing homes may see cameras in resident rooms – with state legislators progressing a bill on the matter. The legislation will allow the use of “granny cams” despite many operator misgivings, providing families with a video feed of activity inside a resident’s room, according to a report published in the Iowa Capital Dispatch. Fourteen […]
Recent nursing home restructurings have often involved additions of other segments of the care continuum. The example of Linn Health & Rehabilitation bears this out. The Rhode Island-based provider of skilled nursing, therapy services and long-term care has opted to shift its operating structure, adding assisted living and memory care, after suffering enormous financial losses […]
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) will be auditing nursing home survey practices this year with results expected in 2025, following concerns that third-party contractors may not have sufficient oversight in the space. OIG suggested closer scrutiny of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulatory practices when it came to surveys, given […]
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) officials are looking to finalize the nursing home minimum staffing proposal in 2024, an official at the federal agency confirmed at its national stakeholder call on Tuesday. Dr. Dora Hughes, acting chief medical officer and director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ), said, “The […]