CMS pushes for mandatory flu vax monitoring among nursing home staff
By
Alicia Lasek
Apr 13, 2022
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wants to adopt a new quality tracker to keep tabs on influenza vaccination among healthcare personnel in skilled nursing facilities.
Providers warn of access issues as waivers near their end
By
Danielle Brown
Apr 08, 2022
Phasing out several COVID-related waivers, including one allowing temporary nurse aide training, over the next several weeks will further complicate workforce struggles, skilled nursing providers said...
BREAKING: CMS ends nurse aide certification waiver, many other COVID-19 allowances
By
Danielle Brown
Apr 07, 2022
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is restoring training requirements for nurse aides who work at skilled nursing facilities after waiving them early during the COVID-19 crisis.
Nursing home workers to CMS leader: Press forward on accountability, wages to transform care
By
Danielle Brown
Apr 07, 2022
Nursing home workers pushed for more accountability of owners and better wages to improve the workforce in a meeting Wednesday with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.
CMS revises COVID-19 vaccine mandate guidance
By
Danielle Brown
Apr 06, 2022
Workers at skilled nursing and other long-term care facilities that have been suspended or are on extended leave won’t count against the providers as “unvaccinated staff,” according to new updated...
CMS chief holds second 1-on-1 with providers as reform looms
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 04, 2022
Leaders of several nonprofit skilled nursing providers warned Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure about the potential impact of “unfunded mandates” and “counterproductive”...
Kansas losing $350,000 for not enforcing healthcare worker vaccine mandate
By
Danielle Brown
Mar 31, 2022
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is cutting Kansas’ Medicaid funding by nearly $350,000 for not enforcing the federal healthcare worker COVID-19 vaccine mandate in nursing homes and hospitals.
Administration and CMS’s big fix
By
Jacqueline Vance, RNC, CDONA/LTC
Mar 15, 2022
I think a lot of us were a little ticked off with the State of the Union address and the administration’s focus on improving the quality of care provided in America’s nursing homes. We all know we...
‘Adequate’ funding part of nursing home staffing minimum strategy, CMS chief says
By
Danielle Brown
Mar 10, 2022
Long-term care providers can expect some funding to help them meet the federal government’s planned minimum staffing requirement, according to the leader of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Providers decry major ‘crack down’ without major funding
By
Danielle Brown
Mar 01, 2022
A historic slate of reforms that would set federal staffing standards and ratchet up penalties at poor-performing facilities — but not pay more for on-site upgrades — was widely criticized by providers...