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...
On Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed the FY 2024 Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Payment Prospective Systems (PPS) rates. It includes an increase of 3.7%, or $1.2 billion in Medicare Part A payments to SNFs.
The rate increase reflects a 6.1% market basket update to the payment rates comprised of a...
In December, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule that would require all health plans, including Medicare Advantage plans, to limit prior authorization deliberations to seven days. On Monday, the public comment for that rule closed.
Many providers believed that the rule doesn't go far enough,...
Nursing homes continue to experience the worst job loss of any other healthcare sector according to new analysis from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), but Congress is cautioning against the use of skilled nursing facility (SNF) staffing minimums planned by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Also, CMS is working to...
Last week, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) published findings in a review of Medicaid payment rates for nursing facility services across states and found major inconsistencies in reimbursement.
Nursing facilities are payed through base payments, which are usually per diem, and supplemental payments, paid...National News
Nursing facility operators are finding optimism in the new year, following two years of unprecedented staffing challenges and constricting cost increases.
The intensity of concerns regarding the staffing issues is beginning to recede although cost concerns related to inflation remain, according to the McKnight's 2023 Outlook Survey....
The U.S. has a new dominant COVID-19 variant, XBB.1.5, which is reportedly twenty-five times as contagious as the original strain of coronavirus. Meanwhile, seniors and people of color bear the burden of high rates of transmission and death as a result of the virus.
New research demonstrates that the death toll of COVID-19 in...
Arizona hospitals are buckling under the pressure of three coinciding surges in airborne illnesses COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). This "tripledemic" is elevating the need to raise vaccination rates for both COVID and the flu, as vaccinations in key areas remain low.
While lower than last week, there were...
The staffing shortage in nursing homes predated the COVID-19 health emergency, but has been exacerbated by the pandemic to an alarming degree. The American Health Care Association (AHCA) has said that the vast majority of nursing homes do not meet existing federal staffing minimums and these levels are having dangerous outcomes for...
The winter surge of COVID-19 has hit Arizona. Cases are on the rise with seniors hit especially hard. In Arizona, the influx of cases in tandem with the high volume of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases has some Arizona officials urging masking in public places and the resumption of mitigating practices.
There were 12,987 new...
Despite the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) efforts to reduce the amount of psychotropic drugs in nursing homes, rates remained “constant” between 2011 and 2019.
A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found 80% of Medicare's long-stay nursing home...
Last Friday, the Biden administration announced it will immediately increase enforcement for nursing home requirements and tighten quality requirements for poor-performing facilities.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said that it would provide resources for poorly-performing nursing homes but maintains the threat...
Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule that aims to improve quality reporting for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
According to the CMS press release, the rule would include mandatory annual state reporting of three new quality measures, called "Core Sets,"...
COVID-19 cases have now plateaued at an unusually high level in Arizona, and research demonstrates that rural people of color were hit the hardest by the surge in cases related to the Omicron variant earlier this year. The Biden administration has announced that it has procured vaccines specifically designed to combat the BA.4 and BA.5...
In a surprising turn of events, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued the FY 2023 Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System (SNF PPS) Final Rule which contains a 2.7% increase in Medicare rates to nursing homes. When the proposed payment rule was published in April, the agency had proposed cutting Medicare Part...
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...
Last week, the independent Arizona Auditor General's Office released a report that showed the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) has inappropriately reclassified nearly all high-priority complaints and self-reports to "lower priority."
The Auditor's report is a 30-month follow up to a report from September 2019 that...
According to USA Today, The United States of America represented 16% of the world deaths, while only representing 4% of the world population. Of countries with at least 5 million cases, the US is third in deaths per 1000 at 303. "First" on the list is Brazil with 313 and next is Poland with 307. Canada had 105 deaths per thousand and...
The Biden Administration’s nursing home reform plan was unveiled earlier this month, with emphasis on improving quality of care. The plan includes more than 20 initiatives, with minimum staffing requirements a top priority. The plan was met with discontent from industry stakeholders who assert the implication that nursing home quality...
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...
