Federal court orders CMS to educate more about Jimmo ‘Improvement Standard’ case
By
James M. Berklan
Aug 19, 2016
Long-term care providers and consumer advocates were able to celebrate a victory over federal regulators on Thursday. But while the infrequent partners might feel they caught a good decision out of U.S....
A message from the future president of the United States
By
James M. Berklan
Mar 09, 2016
Last week in this space, I solved our nation’s problems, and long-term care’s, all in one fell swoop. Since then, there have been more embarrassing debates among bickering candidates for president,...
Finding a geriatrician shouldn’t require a miracle
By
James M. Berklan
Dec 23, 2015
So there I was the other night, flipping channels while taking care of holiday chores when I caught my third partial-viewing of “Miracle on 34th Street” this month. No matter how many times...
Has MedPAC been infiltrated?
By
James M. Berklan
Jun 17, 2015
Don’t look now, but it appears that nursing home owners might have sneaked one of their own onto the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
CMS’s confusing kick in the teeth
By
James M. Berklan
Feb 23, 2015
One gets the feeling that federal regulators, no matter how proper the official talk went, took a bit of pleasure in sticking it to nursing home operators over rebasing their star ratings the past week...
Ice buckets, fund-raising and long-term care
By
James M. Berklan
Aug 28, 2014
Whoever dreamed up the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge should be given a medal — and immediately hired to speak at the next long-term care association conference. Such creativity and that kind of Midas touch...
Summer blockbusters, and some films you want no part of
By
James M. Berklan
Jul 07, 2014
With another huge movie weekend behind us, it’s a good time for providers to exhale in relief. Or wonder anxiously if they have, in fact, been on camera themselves. Especially if Mike DeWine is the...
Taking a cue from Big Brother: A hospital tool for long-term care providers
By
James M. Berklan
Jun 04, 2014
Relationships between hospitals and nursing homes can be funny things. Working together, they can do great things. But “cooperation” and “outreach” are not operative words frequently...
A jolt to long-term care best practices, amid the Ivy
By
James M. Berklan
Apr 23, 2014
This is going to sound terribly wrong on the face of it. There’s no way around it. It appears that the nation’s largest association of nursing home operators has just bought itself a whole...
Provider denies it worked a nurse to death, but will court agree?
By
James M. Berklan
Mar 12, 2014
Long-term care workers, particularly nurses, might complain or even joke about it: I’m being worked to death. But now a dead nurse’s family is testing such an assertion in court.