One state has committed more than $1.1 billion to boosting community living options for people who would otherwise be in a nursing home, following a landmark class action lawsuit settlement. The 54-page settlement agreement still needs a judge’s approval. The original case, titled Marsters v. Healey, involved six residents who were unable to leave their […]
Massachusetts Senior Care Association
The high renovation costs associated with adopting new rules for room occupancy limits are forcing some operators to close their doors, as was recently the case with Northeast Health Group in Massachusetts. Many of these vulnerable facilities, built in the 1960s and 1970s and designed for three to four residents per room, are already in […]
In yet another example of the wide-ranging effects of the ongoing post-acute staffing shortage, hospital systems are reporting months of discharge delays as skilled nursing facilities are unable to accept new residents. Desperate acute care health systems have begun providing nursing homes additional payments to take on residents, and in some cases offering their clinical […]
As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) works to establish federal minimum staffing levels, industry leaders are calling on the government agency to broaden the caregiver definition. The current federal requirement does not provide a specific daily minimum standard, rather, it states that nursing homes must provide “…sufficient nursing staff to attain or […]
Movement at the state and federal level has prompted an expedited shift to more private settings in nursing homes. While the trend isn’t entirely new for the industry, the push from government agencies to make it a compliance issue has garnered mixed reactions. The Biden administration called for reduced room crowding in nursing homes in […]
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker ordered on Wednesday that all long-term care staff in the state must be vaccinated by Oct. 10. Massachusetts appears to be the first state to issue a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for nursing facility workers, according to the state’s long-term care association. The order received immediate praise from the state’s health care […]
As nursing homes’ operating margins dwindle due to insufficient Medicaid reimbursements, one state task force is encouraging lower performing facilities to simply shut down — and make more room for the remaining properties to grab a piece of a shrinking pie. The Nursing Facility Task Force of Massachusetts released a report declaring that the state […]
After already losing 20 nursing homes over the course of the last year-plus, one in four facilities remain at risk of closure in Massachusetts, according to a long-term care trade group in the state. Citing a new report from advisory firm CLA, the Massachusetts Senior Care Association late last week warned that 95 of the […]
A group of nursing home owners, vendors, staffers, and families in Massachusetts says it has secured enough signatures to force a referendum in 2020 on a proposal to boost funding for nursing homes — a strategy that may have applicability in other states as skilled nursing providers grapple with solving the math problems presented by […]
The federal government this week announced a settlement with a regional skilled nursing chain that officials accused of discriminating against residents with opioid use disorder. Athena Health Care Systems will adopt a non-discrimination policy regarding patients dealing with opioid addiction, develop training programs, and pay a $10,000 civil penalty to the government as part of […]
Massachusetts, which has already endured a wave of skilled nursing closures amid tight Medicaid reimbursements, could see 35 more buildings shut their doors without timely intervention from lawmakers, according to a leading trade group in the state. The Bay State has already lost 20 nursing facilities in the last year, according to the Massachusetts Senior […]
Across the U.S., Medicaid rates tend to fall short of the cost of nursing home care for beneficiaries. In the state of Massachusetts, the financial pressures have rendered many skilled nursing facilities unstable — and forced many of them to close. The trend has also forced many of them to leave bills unpaid, which spreads […]
Low Medicaid reimbursements in Massachusetts have put skilled nursing facilities in the state on the brink of “colossal collapse,” according to a deep dive from the Telegram & Gazette published on Saturday. In the past year, 20 SNFs in the Bay State closed, and more than half of the state’s 401 skilled nursing providers are […]
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