BREAKING: CMS issues new guidance, opening up nursing home visitation
By
Danielle Brown
Sep 17, 2020
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued new guidance for visitation in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
New COVID staffing study points to improved paradigm for SNFs against outbreaks
By
James M. Berklan
Jul 15, 2021
More is not always better, especially when talking about the number of employees in a nursing home trying to battle infectious outbreaks such as COVID-19, or even less dangerous annual influenza strains.
White House message on COVID-19 bivalent booster: ‘Don’t wait’
By
Kimberly Bonvissuto
Dec 12, 2022
Getting the updated bivalent COVID-19 booster is the single most important thing that older adults can do to protect their health, COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, said during a White...
UPDATED: Healthcare worker vaccine mandate back on for 26 states
By
Danielle Brown
Dec 16, 2021
Long-term care providers in 26 states will still have to comply with a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate after a federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed a nationwide block against the rule.
BREAKING: Feds increase COVID-19 funding dedicated to nursing homes to nearly $10 billion
By
James M. Berklan
Jul 22, 2020
The administration will be more than doubling funding dedicated directly to nursing homes to fight the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to an additional $5 billion announced by President Trump at a briefing...
COVID-19 management: an executive’s firsthand experience
By
Darrin Hull
Sep 08, 2020
It was the call that every post-acute care operator most feared and that many ultimately received since early March — multiple positive results following housewide COVID-19 testing of residents. That...
Feds’ ‘dramatic expansion’ of telehealth widens payment coverage; HIPAA rules are relaxed for COVID-19
By
James M. Berklan
Mar 18, 2020
The federal government removed Medicare restrictions for telehealth coverage nationwide Tuesday while also temporarily relaxing HIPAA obligations for providers. The latter opens the door for doctors’...
At the crossroads: Legal considerations where government investigations overlap with tort risk in long-term...
By
Tom Barnard
Jill Steinberg
May 19, 2020
Note: See full list of authors below story. In roughly the seventh week after a majority of states and the federal government issued emergency declarations or “lock down” executive orders,...
BREAKING: Federal regulators tout $15M in fines, tripling of ‘Immediate Jeopardy’ citations against...
By
James M. Berklan
Aug 14, 2020
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Friday afternoon that it has levied more than $15 million in fines and tripled the most severe type of citations to nursing homes during the six months...
My job in a COVID-19 hotspot didn’t give me COVID — it gave me PTSD
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Aug 11, 2020
Even a long-term care psychologist can fall prey to the psychological and emotional terrors of the COVID-19 pandemic, I can unfortunately report to you with ironic confidence.