This week, the Health and Human Services Committees in the Arizona House and Senate heard a number of bills related to the administration of health and health policy and local industry advocates are speaking up to remind lawmakers of what's on the line this session.
As tensions around immigration issues rise nationally, Arizona Health...
Today is the last day of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), and policies are rapidly shifting to accommodate the post-pandemic healthcare landscape in the U.S.
On Tuesday, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced that it would continue allowances for telehealth companies to prescribe controlled substances for six...
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden signed a massive executive order aimed at senior care, long-term care facilities and home caregiving. The order also included provisions for child care and early childhood education.
The long-term care sector has struggled with workforce shortages that predate the COVID-19 pandemic but were exacerbated...Arizona News
In reports received from nursing home chains from March to June 2020, one complaint included an Ensign Group nursing home in Arizona which alleged a staffing coordinator had been making CNAs and nurses work despite reporting COVID symptoms and refusing to let people call off when they reported COVID symptoms.
The Report's Key...National News
At this time two years ago, the future of alternative payment models (APMs) and accountable care organizations (ACOs) was uncertain and to some degree the entire landscape of value-based care hung in the balance while the Trump administration sorted out the details of the Direct Contracting payment models. But now, under the Biden...
Following the devastating report from the Arizona Auditor General in May, Arizona lawmakers held ADHS interim director Don Herrington's feet to the fire for nearly three hours last Thursday, searching for answers to the damning questions raised by the report.
The Arizona Department of Health Services is accused of not following...
The BA.2 variant, also known as the "stealth Omicron," is now the dominant coronavirus version in the U.S. and more than 60 other countries. This week, Philadelphia became the first major city in the U.S. to announce that it would return to mandating masks in public spaces due to the spread of BA.2. Meanwhile, Arizona, the Centers for...
On Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) filed the Fiscal Year 2023 Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Prospective Payment System (PPS) Proposed Rule. The reimbursements include a 3.9% increase to industry reimbursements, but in aggregate the impact of payment policies would result in a decrease of $320 million in...
Already struggling with staffing due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, nursing homes are now starting to realize just how dire the situation truly is -- with more than 40,000 residents and 67,000 staff contracting COVID in the early weeks of January.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the...
A dozen of Synergy's franchises operate in Arizona offering companionship services, in addition to personal assistance, housekeeping, live-in care and 24-hour home care services.
In an interview with Home Health Care News, Synergy CEO Charlie Young,
Synergy CEO credits the company’s continued momentum for its success.
If you...
With a new year at hand, many nursing home and long-term care facility administrators and policy makers are now looking to use challenges faced and lessons learned during 2021 to fuel change in 2022. The change of the calendar has not brought an end to the staffing challenges facing such facilities, fueled by the lightning fast spread of...
While telehealth increased access to care and reduced stress for some skilled nursing and long-term care facilities, others faced unexpected challenges, such as lack of adequate training for staff and increased social isolation for residents.
According to mHealth Intelligence, a recent study from the University of Missouri found,...Arizona News
In the midst of an ongoing staffing shortage, long-term care facilities are looking at new leadership, increased funding, and innovative policies to retain current workers.
In an interview with Skilled Nursing News, incoming president and CEO of the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA) Bob Lane discussed a necessary...News
According to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nursing aides are the most likely to interact with long-term care residents but are the industry's least likely workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Concerning Statistics
CDC researchers looked at data from 300 U.S. facilities and found that...National News
On Tuesday, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the nonpartisan commission advising the U.S. Congress on Medicare, advised the elimination of the value-based purchasing program, created in 2014 in order to improve quality of care for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). MedPAC says the standalone metric of hospital...National News
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a nightmare for nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). And while it has improved things dramatically, the vaccine has been far from a panacea for these facilities—and their employees, occupants, and occupants' family members.
COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes have slowed...National News
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission voted to recommend Congress create a new value incentive program to reward skilled nursing facilities for good performance. MedPAC also approved a recommendation for Congress to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to develop and begin to report patient experience measures for...
Since COVID-19 reached the United States in early 2020, nursing homes have been at the center of the story. As the vaccine alleviates the threat of the virus, skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes are looking for ways to fix the problems the pandemic exposed.
According to the latest data reported by Kaiser Family...
The national push to increase vaccine supply, get it out the door faster, increase the number medical units and locations add up to more shots. AARP wants Arizona to put up the vaccination data for residents and staff in long-term care facilities to ensure the most vulnerable are being prioritized in the state; race and ethnic...