Providers warned: Ongoing relief fund audits may bring unprecedented info demands
By
Joe Bush
Nov 21, 2022
Provider Relief Fund audits have started in earnest, with the threat of federal investigators demanding more and different data than most skilled nursing providers have ever been asked to account for.
Nursing homes have to fight for pay protections in Medicare Advantage rule: expert
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 27, 2023
Providers must play an active role in stopping aggressive Medicare Advantage practices that have for years limited access to skilled nursing care, a top managed care expert warned administrators gathered...
COVID testing requirements relaxed for fully vaccinated nursing home workers, residents
By
Danielle Brown
Apr 28, 2021
Fully vaccinated nursing home workers and other healthcare personnel who are asymptomatic can be exempt from expanded COVID-19 testing under new recommendations unveiled Tuesday by the Centers for Disease...
‘Confounded’ providers urge mandated COVID-19 testing for hospital workers, surveyors
By
James M. Berklan
Oct 01, 2020
Healthcare stakeholders who regularly come into contact with skilled nursing residents should be subject to COVID-19 testing mandates similar to those for nursing home employees, a prominent long-term...
Heated COVID-19 nursing home hearing elicits appeals for employee investment, more immigrant workers
By
Joe Bush
Sep 22, 2022
Many problems that afflicted nursing homes before the pandemic were thrust into the spotlight because one-fifth of the nation’s pandemic-related deaths have been connected to nursing homes.
Senator promises legislation to quash nursing home staffing mandate
By
Kimberly Marselas
Nov 29, 2023
Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) has pledged to introduce a highly anticipated bill to block the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from implementing its proposed nursing home staffing mandate, although the...
Care Compare promotes selfish provider goals when it comes to admission and retention policies, researchers...
By
Joe Bush
Oct 05, 2022
The system used to rate nursing homes’ quality needs to be given more oversight in order to discourage admission practices providers employ to pump up their ratings, said authors of a research letter...
BREAKING: Supreme Court speeds vax mandates to Jan. 7 hearing
By
James M. Berklan
Dec 22, 2021
The U.S. Supreme Court took the unusual step of announcing Wednesday night that it would hear arguments over the administration’s COVID-19 worker vaccine mandate on Jan. 7, three days before it was originally...
Pressure mounting on CMS to exclude COVID vaccination data in quality reporting
By
Danielle Brown
Jun 18, 2021
More long-term care stakeholders are calling on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to ditch its proposal to expand the Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Reporting Program to include staff COVID-19...
Therapists anxious without CMS guidance on telehealth coverage post-PHE
By
James M. Berklan
May 12, 2023
Therapy groups serving long-term care and other institutional providers were left hanging Thursday as the public health emergency officially lapsed and federal regulators still had not given clarification...