National news outlets have covered the lack of COVID-19 booster shot administration in nursing homes with more urgency in recent days, reminding the public that older adults are hit the hardest by COVID fatalities, making up 71% of COVID deaths in November, according to CDC data. Vaccination fatigue has taken various shapes and is one […]
Department of Health and Human Services
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) watchdog arm added a probe of skilled nursing residents who had potentially preventable hospitalizations in its list of priorities over the next year. The HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently announced an additional investigation as part of its 2022 work plan — specifically focusing its […]
As the Biden administration continues down its path toward comprehensive nursing home reform, owners and investors in the space have kept a close ear to the ground when it comes to federal leaders’ increasingly loud opposition toward certain for-profit models — perhaps for good reason. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Congressman Mark Takano of […]
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) watchdog arm added a probe of nursing homes’ Medicare payments to related parties in its list of priorities over the next year. The HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) last week announced an additional investigation as part of its 2022 Work Plan — specifically focusing its […]
The federal government late last week officially renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) for an additional 90 days. The extension was to be expected for leaders in the nursing home industry as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has said it would give stakeholders 60 days notice if the PHE is not […]
President Joe Biden pledged in his first State of the Union address Tuesday night that his administration would do its part to boost nursing home quality, specifically calling out private equity-owned facilities. “As Wall Street firms take over more nursing homes, quality in those homes has gone down and costs have gone up. That ends […]
The Biden administration’s announcement of expansive nursing home reform on Monday elicited varied responses from industry trade groups and advocacy organizations. Groups representing skilled nursing providers expressed particular concern that the reforms would impose stricter expectations without providing the needed resources to meet new mandates related to staffing minimums and other proposed requirements. The reforms, […]
The Biden administration rolled out a comprehensive set of intended nursing home reforms on Monday to “crack down on bad actors.” The White House zeroed in on setting minimum staffing requirements and took aim at private equity ownership of nursing homes, among several other priorities and provisions in its plan. Steps toward reform were developed […]
Ten states have sued the federal government this week in hopes of stopping a regulation that requires Medicare and Medicaid participating health care facilities, including nursing homes, to have all staff members fully vaccinated by early next year. The suit, filed on Wednesday by 10 states attorneys general in the U.S. District Court for the […]
Out of thousands of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) across the country, Medicare spent nearly $28 billion in 2019 on short-term care for 1.5 million beneficiaries, but in a study released this week, The U.S. Government Accountability Office argues that SNF hospital readmission rates are higher than they should be due to staffing challenges. It noted […]
The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) are making another push for the federal government to release the remainder of the Provider Relief Fund (PRF) established by the CARES Act. This comes at the heels of the organization’s most recent survey, which revealed that only a quarter of nursing homes […]
Skilled nursing providers may have some financial aid on the way from the federal government to help address the ongoing costs from COVID-19, according to speakers at multiple industry events last week. The speculation comes as the government issued new reporting requirements and deadlines for the federal aid SNFs received over the course of the […]
The top officials who will shape the Biden administration’s health policy continue to emerge, as reports indicate that the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has been locked in. Biden’s pick, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, was confirmed this week in a 55-44 Senate vote, with five Republicans supporting the confirmation, The New York […]
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week announced that it would invest more than $12 billion in expanding testing for COVID-19, with a $255 million contract for the production and delivery of 50 million rapid point-of-care antigen tests to long-term care facilities. The contract covers 50 million Abbott BinaxNOW tests “to support […]
HHS Nominee Becerra Says More Nursing Home Aid ‘Top Priority’ — But Faces No Questions on SNF Reform
California attorney general Xavier Becerra faced a range of questions in his confirmation hearing for the role of Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary — including whether or not he would support more government aid for nursing homes and other health care providers ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican […]
Good infection control standards are the same for skilled nursing facilities across the U.S. — both in the sense of federally mandated requirements, and in the sense of the concrete conditions that are necessary to prevent the spread of contamination. This was true even before a pandemic that shook the world in 2020, with ongoing […]
The AARP Foundation and the law firm Constance Cannon filed a lawsuit against the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and outgoing Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Alex Azar, alleging that the federal government put nursing home residents’ lives in danger by weakening enforcement of monetary penalties for nursing homes. The […]
Alex Azar, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), turned in his resignation to President Trump on last week in keeping with the customary resignations of political appointees prior to the inauguration of a new U.S. president. The resignation came two days ahead of the resignation of Centers for Medicare & […]
The federal government on Friday issued a formal delay of its reporting requirements for health care providers that received COVID-19 financial relief. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had originally set January 15 as the opening date for its Provider Relief Fund reporting portal, with the first deadline set a month later on […]
When the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in skilled nursing facilities became apparent after the first major outbreak in the state Washington, dire predictions for the sector were immediate. Most of those fears, clinically speaking, were borne out horrifically over the course of 2020. But while surveys have found plummeting occupancy and significant numbers of […]
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