When I first spoke with Music & Memory founder Dan Cohen last year, he had big plans for his new program that would put iPods with personalized playlists in Alzheimer’s and other dementia patients’...
Even with PHE extension, providers worry about early demise of nurse aide waiver
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jul 21, 2021
The ongoing Public Health Emergency extends CMS waivers related to hiring, admissions and assessment practices. But as the agency has already shown, it has the authority to revoke those Section 1135 waivers...
CMS allows troubled California facility to keep residents, restart Medicare, Medicaid participation
By
Joe Bush
Oct 14, 2022
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services granted a huge and problem-plagued nursing home in San Francisco a new lifeline this week.
Nursing homes see the buck passed — the wrong way
By
James M. Berklan
Jun 09, 2022
Always at the mercy of government regulators and payments, nursing home operators are getting a classic lesson in what “passing the buck” means these days.
BULLETIN: CMS ‘ratcheting up’ nursing home penalties in light of 26,000-resident, 450-worker...
By
James M. Berklan
Jun 01, 2020
Nearly 26,000 residents and 450 workers in U.S. nursing homes have died from COVID-19, federal authorities announced Monday afternoon.
Feds broaden nursing home quality campaign with new discharge, satisfaction and vaccination measures
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 10, 2023
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made one thing clear when it issued its newly proposed nursing home pay rule last week: Promoting nursing home quality improvement is driving policy formation.
States get needed nurse aide waiver relief but workers’ fates uncertain
By
Kimberly Marselas
Oct 07, 2022
Skilled nursing providers in at least 15 states averted the loss of thousands of frontline workers Thursday, when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services let expire a blanket national waiver allowing...
Debating the obscure parts of the final rule
Sep 30, 2016
If misery loves company, take comfort in knowing many of your long-term care colleagues are doing the same thing this week.
Care teams now at risk as MDS changes roll out
By
Kimberly Marselas
Sep 28, 2023
It’s been widely billed as the biggest change to the Minimum Data Set in more than a decade, and on Sunday, version 1.18.11 of the MDS 3.0 finally kicks in.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will not be enforcing its rule requiring healthcare workers at Medicare- and Medicaid-certified facilities to be vaccinated against COVID-19 while preliminary...