Immigration reemerges as workforce solution in scattershot Senate hearing
By
Kimberly Marselas
Feb 17, 2023
An overwhelmed healthcare workforce, the implications of ongoing shortages and fears about a stressed pipeline took center stage during a Senate hearing Thursday.
New guidance adds pressure
By
Kimberly Marselas
Nov 11, 2022
Skilled nursing providers in late October began grappling with major changes to rules governing their everyday operations, with new surveyor guidance that went live Oct. 24.
With ‘hundreds’ of facilities audited over schizophrenia, CMS pursues harsher antipsychotics stance
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jan 19, 2024
With half of nursing homes audited in a new process admitting to misdiagnosing schizophrenia patients, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is extending its drive to reduce the use of certain drugs...
Connecticut providers sue state health officials over staffing rule ‘overreach’
By
Kimberly Marselas
Oct 12, 2023
Connecticut’s largest nursing home association has sued the state Department of Public Health to stop nurse staffing ratios, arguing that state officials went beyond the intent of the legislature in...
Colliding factors threaten to ‘muddy’ state Medicaid reimbursement
By
Kimberly Marselas
Oct 04, 2023
Several converging factors could make the next few years especially complicated for state Medicaid systems, with the potential for new cost-setting strategies to affect providers from coast-to-coast.
Staff deaths, other elements to be removed from CDC data requirements
By
Kimberly Marselas
May 26, 2023
Skilled nursing providers will soon see significant changes to COVID-related data-reporting requirements, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced.
Long-term care’s zeal for foreign nurses a ‘Band-Aid’ solution: researchers
By
Kimberly Marselas
May 05, 2023
In a new commentary, researchers likened long-term care organizations’ quest to entice immigrant nurses to using a Band-Aid to stop a hemorrhaging workforce wound.
Docs got $22.5M in overpayments by miscoding services during SNF stays: OIG
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jun 01, 2023
Physicians billed Medicare for at least $22 million in services that should have been included under a skilled nursing stay, a new report from the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General...
Bill would eliminate predatory staffing agency fees
By
Kimberly Marselas
Feb 10, 2023
Lawmakers in Colorado are poised to prohibit agency collection of fees charged to operators who hire agency nurses full-time.
MedPAC member: Give Congress more on nursing home staffing mandate implications
By
Kimberly Marselas
Jan 12, 2024
The likely costs of complying with a federal staffing mandate will affect nursing home margins so “massively” that a Congressional advisory board should offer alternative payment guidance for the sector,...