Skilled nursing edges toward 90% occupancy, absorption rate makes first gain in nearly a decade, NIC...
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 14, 2014
Skilled nursing facilities’ occupancy rate continued to tick up in the first three months of 2014, while absorption flipped into positive territory for the first time in almost a decade, according...
CMS: Hospice quality reporting to begin July 1, will require admission and discharge records
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 14, 2014
Providers will have to report certain hospice quality measures to the federal government starting July 1, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services formally announced in a recent Federal Register notice.
Hospitals worried about readmissions should focus on nearby nursing homes’ pressure ulcer stats,...
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 11, 2014
Out of various quality measures, pressure ulcer prevalence in particular predicts whether a nursing home will readmit residents to the hospital, according to newly published findings in HSR: Health Services...
House members request $200 million to increase long-term care, geriatric medicine workforce
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 11, 2014
To meet an increasingly urgent need, Congress should earmark $200 million to expand the number of geriatric care workers. This was the case that 26 House members made in a recent letter Appropriations...
Nursing homes send too many dementia residents to the hospital in their last year of life, study finds
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 11, 2014
Nursing homes could do a better job of keeping residents with dementia out of the hospital during their last year of life, suggests recently published findings in Health Affairs.
Sebelius resigns as administration touts ACA enrollment numbers
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 11, 2014
Kathleen Sebelius is resigning as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, White House officials confirmed to news outlets Thursday.
Higher acuity residents drove skilled nursing home bed prices to record levels in 2013, report finds
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 10, 2014
The average price paid for a skilled nursing facility bed reached a record $73,300 in 2013, according to a recently released annual report published by Irving Levin Associates.
CMS releases Medicare physician payment information, includes some nursing home affiliations
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 10, 2014
Long-term care providers and residents now can glean insights into where their local doctors stack up nationally by referring to newly released data on Medicare physician payments. For the first time ever,...
US dementia strategy overlooks transitions into and out of nursing homes, analysts find
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 10, 2014
The U.S. national strategy for tackling dementia fails to address late-stage transitions into long-term care facilities from a person’s home or the hospital, according to a recently published analysis...
Skilled nursing facilities could lose big money if they don’t hire a managed care coordinator,...
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 08, 2014
Skilled nursing facilities stand to lose substantial sums of money as they increasingly do business with managed care plans, unless a coordinator is on top of exclusions and other contract elements, a...