Providers are grappling with how to provide care for a virus with a myriad of uncertainties still looming. Several states are moving to protect healthcare facilities from lawsuits related to coronavirus care, including Arizona.
The coronavirus is wreaking havoc on long-term care facilities where vulnerable populations live in...Arizona News
The spread of coronavirus in nursing homes has yielded disturbing death tolls among residents and a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine confirms people infected with the virus are contributing to the spread without displaying any symptoms.
The study concludes that "rapid and...Arizona News
The coronavirus outbreak has profoundly impacted the facilities who care for those most vulnerable to it: nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities (SNF).
This week, AZCentral reported that SNF residents currently account for nearly half of Maricopa and Pima Counties’ COVID-19 deaths. According to a Maricopa County...Arizona News
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued guidance to nursing homes in an effort to mitigate the spread of coronavirus among vulnerable patients following a surge in cases in a matter of days for hundreds of facilities across the country.
Recommendations to restrict visitors and implement focused...Arizona News
In a March 24 ruling, U.S. District Judge Michael Shea granted Medicare patients the constitutional right to challenge hospital decisions putting them on observation status. The class action case favored beneficiaries who had their status changed by hospitals to observation, despite having initially been admitted by...Data Resources
Following an annual data report by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), 77% of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) participating in the Value Based Purchasing program will receive reduced reimbursements from Medicare and only 23%, or 2,909 SNFs will see a bonus in FY 2020.
Last year in Arizona, 138 SNFs participated...National News
Long-term and post-acute care providers, including skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are unable to implement the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) value-based payment model without more advanced IT and technology support, according to a survey.
The survey of 1,640 long-term and post-acute care providers led by Black...National News
The price of beds in skilled nursing facilities has risen over $1,000 in the past year, according to a quarterly report by Irving Levin Associates.
In 2018, skilled nursing facilities’ (SNFs) bed prices fell an average of 3.9 percent for the final quarter of 2018 with a total decline of 7.9 percent for the year. Bed prices...National News
On Sunday The Washington Post reported on the issue of senior mobility in hospitals and the ways in which this contributes to the cycles of readmission for disabled senior care.
The Post tells a sort of a woman named Dorothy Twigg who was admitted to a hospital shortly following a fall and was subsequently confined to a hospital bed...Arizona News
Starting Oct. 1 therapy payments to nursing facilities will shift to a value-based model, emphasizing patient needs over the amount of services provided. The Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM), a more individualized approach, aims to reduce inflated billing by basing payments on patient's medical characteristics.
The new approach...Arizona News
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a termination notice last week disclosing that Hacienda Healthcare will no longer participate in the Medicaid program as of July 3.
The termination follows a Notice of Intent from The Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS) to revoke the skilled nursing facilities license...Arizona News
After an investigation into the rape of a 29-year-old incapacitated woman, giving birth to the baby boy that spurred the commotion around Hacienda Healthcare nearly six months ago, the facility could finally lose its license—due to maggots.
Staff at the skilled nursing facility discovered several maggots on a patient’s throat...Data Resources
The April 2019 changes include revisions to the inspection process, enhancement of new staffing information, and implementation of new quality measures.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated Nursing Home Compare and the Five-Star Quality Rating System in April.
Arizona...National News
Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) get some insight into the selection process used by Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs). Some of the coordination strategies include home visit programs and the exchange of data between primary care and emergency departments.
The strategies are outlined in a new Centers for Medicare and...Arizona News
Skilled nursing facilities (SNF) may secure a $887 million increase in payments by fiscal year 2020 under an April 2019 proposed rule aiming to update the payment rates and quality programs to align with value-based care models.
Due to a three percent market basket increase factor, paired with a 0.5 percentage point reduction for...Arizona News
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is calling on state survey agencies to up the level of oversight in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) after a report revealed a 15-year gap of abuse investigations across Oregon nursing homes that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) failed to address.
The same...National News
A November Office of Inspector General (OIG) report found that 46 percent of Medicare patients in Long-term-care hospitals (LTCH) experienced some type of harm during care. The OIG examined other post-acute settings such as skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and rehabilitation centers, but LTCHs had the highest overall...Arizona News
During this year's second quarter, Ensign Group said its strategies for underperforming skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), which included removing old leadership teams, pushed its SNF revenue to $286.3 million, an increase of 4 percent, year over year.
According to Ensign's CEO Christopher Christensen, the acquisition of SNFs in 2017...National News
The Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is a popular performance improvement tool among health plans, for which four new measures were released by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for 2019.
According to the NCQA, the updates address "emerging health priorities and evolving processes in care...Arizona News
Beginning October 1, the new Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) model begins and Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) will automatically lose two-percent of Medicare funding.
SNFs have the opportunity to receive incentive payments from the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) based on the quality of their care rather than the...
