Medicare’s Recovery Audit Contractor program continues to struggle with controversy.
The sweet irony of a nursing home report card
By
James M. Berklan
Sep 17, 2014
It’s said that politics, among other things, makes for strange bedfellows. Add long-term care quality improvement efforts to the list.
Minimum wage battle inches closer to long-term care
By
James M. Berklan
Sep 04, 2014
I remember with a sad chuckle the way my German friend Volker felt that American news coverage during one of his visits was too narrowly focused. Where, for example, were the stories about the Iraq-Iran...
Deadline for mental health plan comments midnight Monday
By
James M. Berklan
Aug 15, 2014
Advocates for better mental health services for adults will be pressing until at least midnight Monday to have comments submitted to include seniors in a new federal behavioral health plan,
Psychologists ‘outraged’ over federal plan they say omits seniors
By
James M. Berklan
Aug 15, 2014
Mental healthcare providers for the elderly expressed anger Thursday over an apparent snub of seniors mental health services in a proposed new federal behavioral health plan.
Blockbuster productions that you want no part in
By
James M. Berklan
Aug 01, 2014
With another summer of huge movies nearly behind us, it’s a good time for providers to exhale in relief. Or wonder anxiously if they have been on camera themselves. Especially if Mike DeWine would...
A ‘special’ feeling that no provider wants to have
By
James M. Berklan
Jul 01, 2014
As spring blends into summer, some nursing home operators are going to start feeling more heat. The federal government is moving to reclaim some form of “normalcy” after sequestration cuts...
Supervisor let resident die, covered it up, state charges
By
James M. Berklan
Jul 01, 2014
A nursing home supervisor in New York allegedly failed to administer CPR or direct staff members to do so, criminally allowing a resident to die, the state attorney general’s office has charged.
Feds: Without more funds, we are cutting provider oversight
By
James M. Berklan
Jun 01, 2014
Nursing providers could feel reduced heat from federal Medicare and Medicaid oversight activities — if an agency official’s testimony is to be believed as more than just budget-request bluster.
Pressure sore leads to false-advertising suit
By
James M. Berklan
Jun 01, 2014
A resident who developed a serious pressure ulcer allegedly due to negligence at a Pennsylvania continuing care retirement community is suing the operator, claiming it purposely misrepresented its care...