8.5% payment boost to Medicare Advantage plans ‘clear signal of support’ from CMS: expert
By
Danielle Brown
Apr 06, 2022
The 8.5% boost in average revenue slated for Medicare Advantage plans in 2023 is proof of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services support of the program and could mean improved payment for post-acute...
A tisket, a tasket … No LPNs in the RN basket
By
Steven Littlehale
Jul 20, 2015
Reporting direct care hours is nothing new, but the Affordable Care Act takes it to the next level with mandatory quarterly electronic submission of staffing and census data. This focus on staffing ratios...
Pressure mounting on CMS to exclude COVID vaccination data in quality reporting
By
Danielle Brown
Jun 18, 2021
More long-term care stakeholders are calling on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to ditch its proposal to expand the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Reporting Program to include staff COVID-19...
Practical advice on reducing antipsychotics
By
Jerome Wilborn
May 08, 2015
Two CMS tags —F-Tag 329, which addresses unnecessarily using antipsychotic drugs, and F-Tag 309, which addresses taking steps to reduce antipsychotic drug use — are used by nursing home surveyors to...
DAY TWO at the 2012 MDS National Conference: Providers playing MDS catch-up before April 1
Mar 08, 2012
CMS officials were listening, and that was positive. Very positive.
BREAKING: CMS clarifies nursing homes may put some limits on visitors
By
James M. Berklan
Dec 23, 2021
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Thursday acknowledged “very limited and rare exceptions” that would allow nursing homes to restrict some visits.
Will there be a ‘real’ CMS administrator soon? It’s looking so
By
James M. Berklan
Apr 03, 2013
If you’re a gambling person, it looks like the odds just got a whole lot better for Marilyn Tavenner becoming the next administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. That’s...
Minnix: CMS administrator vacancy delaying possible Five-Star rating system changes
Apr 22, 2009
The absence of a chief at the helm of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services may be stymieing providers’ attempts to persuade federal regulators to modify the new Five-Star Quality Rating System...
A good first step but more to do with MDS 3.0
By
Leah Klusch, RN, BSN, FACHCA
Mar 07, 2012
It was a long first day, but there was tremendous value and everyone who is here has learned what the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ positions are with the April updates and some of the...
Mandated minimum staffing would cost nursing homes $10 billion annually
By
Danielle Brown
Jul 20, 2022
Providers would have to spend an additional $10 billion more per year and hire more than 187,000 new workers to meet requirements of one possible federal minimum staffing approach, according to a new analysis.