While CMS tries to figure out how to proceed with the manual medical review process, we continue to track our caps and apply our modifiers. In the meantime, has anyone noticed how our typical Medicare...
Catheters, infections and … you don’t want to know
By
Elizabeth Newman
Mar 06, 2012
Urinary catheters were on my radar twice last week. The first involved a late-night trip to the vet with an unhappy cat. The second, a political animal.
Another one bites the dust
By
John O'Connor
Nov 15, 2021
Skilled care has been absorbing a lot of body blows lately. The latest was delivered Friday, and it’s going to leave a mark.
Transforming healthcare with technology
By
Scott Magers
Jul 17, 2019
How do you manage to accomplish ever expanding company objectives with the same or fewer resources each year? When my career began to transition from being a healthcare provider to operational responsibilities,...
Might there be a drug company in your future?
By
John O'Connor
Sep 13, 2018
If you want to know what skilled care will look like in five years, consider what hospitals look like today.
Is it the docs’ turn to get stoned?
By
James M. Berklan
Apr 25, 2018
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services brought out its equivalent of a brass band and confetti machine Tuesday to tout a new provider payment strategy. One could almost hear strains of “Happy...
A tisket, a tasket … No LPNs in the RN basket
By
Steven Littlehale
Jul 20, 2015
Reporting direct care hours is nothing new, but the Affordable Care Act takes it to the next level with mandatory quarterly electronic submission of staffing and census data. This focus on staffing ratios...
Bon appétit for therapy!
By
Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L
Sep 23, 2014
Once upon a time, in a faraway land, physical, occupational and speech therapy used to provide group therapy and often co-treat. This was a totally different time and place for the history of rehabilitation.
The caregiver king
By
Liza Berger
Aug 21, 2008
Be nice to your employees. You never know when there might be royalty in your midst. That’s a lesson a nursing home in Harrisburg, PA, is not apt to forget. A certified nursing aide named Charles Wesley...
New models predict SNF hospital readmission rates
By
Steven Littlehale
Jan 21, 2015
If a skilled nursing facility were an overall Five Star performer, you would think that it would provide the best care and have the fewest rehospitalizations, right?