OIG urges CMS to evaluate home health use of telehealth
By
Diane Eastabrook
Oct 21, 2022
The Office of Inspector General has urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to evaluate how the use of telehealth affected the quality of home healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The changes to end-of-life skin wound classification in the most recent Minimum Data Set update are ultimately a positive for long-term care, but regulatory ambiguity and potential legal concerns still...
A Medicare Advantage fix: What took so long?
By
James M. Berklan
Apr 12, 2024
Providers hoping that policy makers might some day show some backbone when dealing with Medicare Advantage plans can take heart. Well, at least a little.
FDA to withdraw certain drug-related guidances with end of PHE
By
Alicia Lasek
Mar 14, 2023
The Food and Drug Administration has issued a notice detailing which COVID-19-related guidances will expire when the public health emergency ends as scheduled on May 11, and which guidances will remain...
AMDA ‘thrilled’ by medical directors’ inclusion in new CMS transparency rule
By
Josh Henreckson
Nov 21, 2023
Nursing homes will have to publicly disclose information about their medical directors, along with other managing employees, under a new transparency rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Grant program offers $20K for LTC infection control. Is it enough?
By
Jessica R. Towhey
Mar 21, 2023
A new program pledges up to $20,000 to South Dakota long-term care facilities that want to enhance infection prevention at a time when other COVID-era support is waning.
Skilled nursing faces special conditions, dangers in heightened bankruptcy climate
By
Jessica R. Towhey
Jun 13, 2023
Bankruptcy filings jumped in early 2023, compared to a year earlier, and nursing homes continued to account for a large portion of them, researchers have found.
Team spirit is for the birds
By
Foster Stubbs
Feb 15, 2023
The Philadelphia Eagles may not have won the Super Bowl but it certainly wasn’t due to a lack of support from their fans at Phoebe Allentown Healthcare Center. Before the big game on Sunday, Allentown...
Providers ‘on notice’ as CMS pressures states to shift Medicaid pay metrics
By
Kimberly Marselas
Nov 10, 2022
Providers still struggling to accurately capture diagnoses that drive federal reimbursement will be doubly left behind as more states start to use Patient Driven Payment Model-like systems to determine...
We don’t have any frogs. Now go away.
By
Gary Tetz
Mar 09, 2023
In a cruel twist of fate, I spent the past weekend in Las Vegas. Now, before I say more, I need to be clear: I love the people of Vegas, the long-term care facilities of Vegas, the long-term care staff...