Updated palliative care guidelines: Providers should increase coordination, embrace QAPI
By
McKnight's Staff
Apr 15, 2013
Palliative care should follow care coordination and quality improvement processes called for by the Affordable Care Act, according to updated guidelines from the National Consensus Project for Quality...
Feds offer more support for workers’ background checks
By
James M. Berklan
Apr 01, 2013
A federal agency is again offering to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to employee background checks for long-term care providers. All direct-care employees could potentially be affected.
HHS issues final rule on federal payment rates for new Medicaid beneficiaries
By
McKnight's Staff
Apr 01, 2013
The federal government will pay 100% of the Medicaid costs for certain newly eligible beneficiaries under the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed in a final rule...
Regulations for nursing home ethics programs and QAPI still in the works, administrators say
By
McKnight's Staff
Mar 22, 2013
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is still working on the regulations for ethics and compliance programs that nursing homes were supposed to have implemented this month, CMS administrators admitted...
Managing the gaps with transitional care
By
Debra Jacobs, RN, CRRN, MSN
Mar 14, 2013
As agents of innovative health care for the future, our role is clear in paving the path of collaborative efforts within the patient care continuum. Transitional Care Management (TCM) is certainly not...
IT Update
Mar 02, 2013
Timothy Bickmore, Ph.D., will address how computerized characters can provide support to providers during an upcoming free webinar. “Avatars in senior care settings” will begin at 1 p.m. ET...
Compliance clock ticks
By
Terese Farhat
Feb 02, 2013
Nursing facilities have always faced an array of obligations in order to provide services to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, which can sometimes seem burdensome in comparison with other providers....
Long-term care pharmacy groups propose changes to make short-cycle dispensing more efficient, cost-effective
By
McKnight's Staff
Feb 05, 2013
Long-term care pharmacies are struggling with an Affordable Care Act provision related to short-cycle dispensing of brand name oral solid drugs, according to a recent letter from the Long Term Care Pharmacy...
Former Medicare administrators identify different priorities for reform
By
McKnight's Staff
Feb 01, 2013
Three former top Medicare administrators offered their proposals for reform Wednesday. The panel spoke at the Kaiser Family Foundation offices in Washington, D.C.
States make Medicaid enrollment easier in preparation for healthcare reform
By
McKnight's Staff
Jan 25, 2013
Most states are making the Medicaid application process easier as they prepare for implementation of the Affordable Care Act, according to a recently released study from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid...