Stakeholders need to prepare for the loss of long-term care’s exemption to e-prescribing
By
Cynthia Morton
Sep 15, 2014
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is set to lift long-term care’s exemption from its e-prescribing rule as of Nov. 1. This is bigger news than most realize right now, and there has been...
AHA pushes for payment policies to benefit hospital-based skilled nursing facilities
By
Tim Mullaney
Jun 27, 2014
The government should adjust Medicare payment policies to better support the type of care provided in hospital-based skilled nursing facilities, the American Hospital Association urged in a recent letter...
New payment models present opportunities for SNFs
By
Jeff Terkowitz
Jun 18, 2014
For skilled nursing facilities, the Medicare SNF 3-day rule can make it difficult to place the right patients in the right setting at the right time. The 3-day rule requires that a Medicare beneficiary...
Close the infection loop to reduce outbreak risk
May 12, 2014
The readmission scores of nursing homes will be posted to the Nursing Home Compare website beginning in 2017, and the VBP program will begin Oct. 1, 2018. For the first time, facilities will not just face...
Getting ready for the unthinkable
By
Richard Cheng
Mar 12, 2014
Natural disasters and catastrophic events by definition arise unpredictably and consequently do not remain even in the back of people’s minds on a consistent basis.
Blanket ‘no-CPR’ policy can result in citation, CMS rules
By
James M. Berklan
Dec 01, 2013
Federal regulators have come out strongly against facility-wide policies that prohibit cardiopulmonary resuscitation for residents in distress.
CMS: Nursing homes may not establish blanket no-CPR policies
By
Tim Mullaney
Oct 28, 2013
Nursing homes will face survey citations for facility-wide policies that prohibit cardiopulmonary resuscitation for residents, according to a recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services memorandum.
When two midnights doesn’t equal three days
By
Carol Levine
Sep 23, 2013
Hospital observation stays have been increasing, as have Medicare auditors’ denial of claims related to short inpatient stays on the basis that they should have been counted as observation stays....
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently finalized 2014 Medicare rate updates for hospices and inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and also laid out quality metrics. Hospices will receive...
Old wine, new bottles: Increased scrutiny for antipsychotic drug use
By
Alan C. Horowitz, Esq., RN
Feb 22, 2013
The landmark legislation known as “OBRA ’87” (the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987) significantly limited the inappropriate use of antipsychotic drug use in long-term care facilities....