Federal lawmakers eye FMAP incentive as workforce proposals proliferate
By
Jessica R. Towhey
Apr 11, 2023
Federal lawmakers are considering rewarding states for creating scholarships as part of a caregiver education pipeline, one among a growing number of possible bipartisan solutions to the healthcare workforce...
Former administrator facing charges for locking out a resident who chose to leave nursing home
By
Jessica R. Towhey
Apr 11, 2023
The former administrator of an Iowa nursing home is facing charges from the state licensing board for allegedly locking a resident out of the facility overnight after the resident chose to leave.
Benefits of Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi persist when treatment is halted, trial shows
By
Alicia Lasek
Apr 09, 2023
A relative slowing of cognitive decline continues for up to two years in patients who stop taking the recently authorized drug, clinical trial data reveal.
Proposal would help more providers reduce civil monetary penalties
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 07, 2023
Providers who don’t plan to appeal a civil monetary penalty but fail to file a hearing waiver would still be in line for a fee reduction under a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposal issued...
In blow to providers, federal judge rules RNs not required on all survey teams
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 05, 2023
A 10-year-old case that started over a bowl of spilt soup has led to a sweeping confirmation that state survey teams do not have to include registered nurses when investigating complaints or monitoring...
CMS: Lapses in infection control, vaccine compliance to garner ‘aggressive’ enforcement
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 04, 2023
Federal regulators have quietly put in place new, stricter enforcement measures for nursing homes that struggle to meet infection control and vaccine immunization requirements for residents and staff.
Mississippi nursing home first wins whistleblower case, and now attorney fees in sharp rebuke
By
Jessica R. Towhey
Apr 03, 2023
A lawyer who acknowledged to the court that he did not check a public database to determine the status of a nursing director’s license must pay attorneys’ fees after losing a whistleblower case, a...
Will you pass CMS’s new schizophrenia MDS audits?
By
Steven Littlehale
Mar 31, 2023
In 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services started focused on-site surveys to address the issue of erroneous coding of schizophrenia in nursing homes. More recently, the agency began conducting...
Providers call for broader antipsychotic exclusions to help reduce schizophrenia diagnoses
By
Kimberly Marselas
Mar 31, 2023
Providers and quality experts are questioning why the agency hasn’t done more to review its quality measure for antipsychotic drug use.
Prior authorization guidance for the rehab provider
By
Renee Kinder
Mar 30, 2023
As a rehab professional, is there anything more miserable than the gathering of stacks of documents and searching for records needed for pre-authorization? Awful scans, missing documents, and most importantly...