To meet some of the most daunting challenges facing nursing home providers today – including in the realms of workforce and regulations – leaders must shift their mindsets. This was one major takeaway from a recent webinar that Skilled Nursing News hosted, featuring a panel of nursing home executives. With regard to public policy and […]
Focused Post Acute Care Partners
Editor’s Note: The following article is based on a webinar that covered several topics that will be under discussion during our upcoming RETHINK conference in Chicago, Aug. 18-20. To learn more about RETHINK and purchase a ticket, please go to: https://skillednursingnews.com/snn-live-event/rethink/ Given that access to capital is easy to find but harder to justify in […]
A nursing home regulatory model focused on real-time collaboration between state, federal and provider leaders is crucial, considering existing outdated and punitive regulatory practices seen in some states. In Texas, for example, there’s a disproportionate issuance of immediate jeopardy (IJ) citations and associated financial penalties, which discourage investment in the industry while demoralizing staff, Focused […]
Managed care’s growth across all health care settings, including nursing homes, has pushed reimbursement rates lower, and operators are implementing strategies to counter the situation. For starters, operators expressed the need to be well equipped for negotiating better rates with managed care organizations (MAOs). And, coming armed with cost of care data to the negotiating […]
As the Covid-19 public health emergency officially ended in 2023, the nursing home sector continued to face lingering troubles across many facets of the business even if spread of disease – and death resulting from it – diminished as a concern. Chief among troubles that continued to plague nursing homes included workforce shortages and expansion […]
The skilled nursing industry is experiencing a profound shift in patient acuity, presenting both challenges and opportunities for operators. Given this trend, experts at Skilled Nursing News’ RETHINK conference last week shared ideas on how to tackle rising acuity, including by creating “medical resorts,” using telehealth and predictive analytics to streamline care, creative staffing initiatives […]
As nursing home operators enter the final stretch before Minimum Data Set (MDS) changes take effect on Oct. 1, they are focusing particular attention on items related to capturing resident depression. With a substantial amount of reimbursement being at stake, the effect of the change from the PHQ-9 to the PHQ-2 to 9 is the […]
The skilled nursing sector is under increasing pain due to the growth of Medicare Advantage, with the industry losing hundreds of millions of dollars while operators also are contending with a host of operational burdens. This was a message delivered repeatedly Wednesday at the “Roaring Reimbursement” conference held by Zimmet Healthcare Services Group (ZHSG) in […]
The Medicare Advantage preauthorization process and denials of care are a growing concern across the continuum, and nursing home operators and advocates — as well as federal lawmakers — are pushing more urgently for change. Such concerns are not new, and already some action has been taken: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) […]
Clinical talent leaving the workforce has taken center stage as nursing home industry leaders discuss the ongoing staffing shortage – but that’s only part of the story. The other half of the devastating staffing crisis, operators say, is tied up in a loss of back office talent. And this shortage of back office workers is […]
The march toward a new Minimum Data Set (MDS) protocol continues, with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) releasing the full complement of draft item sets. With this release on Dec. 23, CMS made good on a previous promise to get these complete draft item sets out in 2022. The agency plans to […]
As several states across the country have extended or made permanent nursing home Medicaid rate bumps tied to the pandemic, at least in part to stem the tide of high staffing costs and inflationary pressures, Texas operators are anxiously awaiting their fate ahead of next year’s legislative session. Focused Post Acute Care Partners CEO Mark […]


