The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is considering extending waivers on telehealth coverage beyond the coronavirus health crisis, according to a report by Inside Health Policy.
Need for anticoagulants unclear in certain nursing home residents with Afib
By
Alicia Lasek
Nov 02, 2022
Apixaban may be the least likely direct-acting blood thinner to cause GI bleeding in elderly patients with atrial fibrillation. But researchers question the need for these drugs in nursing home residents...
1 in 8 nursing home workers have completed COVID-19 training program, CMS says
By
Danielle Brown
Nov 18, 2020
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is calling for more nursing home staff members to complete its new training program designed to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Federal COVID-19 relief funding a ‘primary support’ for long-term care, exec says
By
Danielle Brown
Nov 06, 2020
Federal COVID-19 stimulus funding has been crucial to the stability of Diversicare Health Services’ operations, according to Jay McKnight, the firm’s president and CEO.
CDC to end community tracking of COVID-19
By
Alicia Lasek
May 02, 2023
Community spread will no longer be tracked by the CDC after the PHE ends May 11. Nursing homes have used the data to make COVID-19 mitigation decisions.
‘Not a shock:’ MedPAC considering 5% pay cut for SNFs
By
Danielle Brown
Dec 14, 2021
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is leaning toward recommending a 5% pay cut for skilled nursing facilities in fiscal 2021 after a new report found that Medicare margins may indicate SNF pay rates...
Less white, denser employee communities linked to higher number of nursing home COVID-19 deaths, Harvard...
By
Danielle Brown
Sep 22, 2020
A new Harvard analysis makes the connection between employee neighborhoods and the likelihood of COVID-19 outbreaks within those employees’ facilities.
Caution urged for use of azithromycin as COVID treatment
By
Alicia Lasek
Sep 17, 2020
When taken together with commonly prescribed drugs that affect the heart’s electrical impulses, azithromycin is linked with a 40% increase in cardiac events. These include fainting, heart palpitations...
Excessive daytime sleepiness predicts mortality in nursing home residents
By
Alicia Lasek
Apr 16, 2023
Excessive daytime sleepiness predicts both mortality and the presence of age-related comorbidities in the long-stay nursing home population, investigators report.
Coronavirus vaccines safeguard people with obesity, but less so in the underweight: study
By
Alicia Lasek (f3)
Jul 05, 2022
Underweight people may have less vaccine-derived immunity due to frailty or immunosuppression, investigators theorize.