New nursing home staffing headache? CMS and GAO agree new requirements needed for infection preventionists
By
Joe Bush
Sep 15, 2022
First came the federal requirement that every nursing home must have an infection control preventionist on staff. Now, a government watchdog says that minimum training requirements should be established...
Providers to report COVID infections in 12 hours or face $1k fines, CMS says
By
James M. Berklan
Apr 21, 2020
Nursing homes will face fines of “at least” $1,000 per week for not reporting COVID-19 infections within 12 hours of learning about them, federal regulators said Monday.
CMS outlines 4-pronged minimum staffing study
By
Kimberly Marselas
Aug 23, 2022
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Monday revealed more details about how it will use nursing home site visits, data and other tools to formulate a minimum staffing standard, one that is meant...
BREAKING: CMS says all healthcare staff must be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4
By
Danielle Brown
Nov 04, 2021
Long-term care staff must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4 under a new healthcare worker vaccination rule released early Thursday by 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...
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”...
Supreme Court leaves providers to grapple with vaccine mandate, takes other employers off the hook
By
Kimberly Marselas
James M. Berklan
Jan 13, 2022
Nursing home operators were already bracing late Thursday for the fallout of a nationwide staff vaccine mandate, just hours after the Supreme Court ruled a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rule...
Providers tepidly embrace CMS plan to revoke ‘no longer needed’ vax mandate
By
Kimberly Marselas
May 03, 2023
Skilled nursing providers on Tuesday cheered the federal government’s decision to revoke its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.
Providers: Staffing rule a CMS ‘fairy tale’ that will ‘exacerbate’ nursing home access issue
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 23, 2024
Despite minor concessions in a staffing mandate issued Monday, many nursing home providers were shell-shocked by what they saw as federal regulators’ intractable stance on minimums at a time when nearly...
CMS to require nursing homes to report infections directly to CDC
By
Danielle Brown
Apr 16, 2020
Providers will soon be required to report potential infectious disease outbreaks directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.