Pfizer, BioNTech to pursue 2nd booster shot authorization for older adults
By
Alicia Lasek
Mar 16, 2022
A second booster — or fourth dose — will be necessary to improve the vaccine’s waning protection in the face of omicron, Pfizer’s CEO has stated. Whether the FDA will find the evidence compelling...
Providers are not reporting all falls on the MDS: study
By
Danielle Brown
Feb 02, 2020
A new study suggests that nursing home providers could be vastly underreporting major-injury falls in the Minimum Data Set, which the Nursing Home Compare website uses to report nursing home performance.
SNF med tech pleads guilty to resident’s ‘murder-by-insulin,’ injecting others
By
Aug 01, 2016
A former medical technician pleaded guilty on Friday to injecting a nursing home resident with a medically unnecessary dose of insulin in July 2007, leading to her death.
January/February FocusOn Briefs
Jan 31, 2021
COVID-19 vaccine priority populations vary by state, city; States should complete COVID-19 vaccinations of all LTC residents, workers by March, AHCA says; and AMDA’s new COVID-19 vaccine PowerPoint can...
ACOs overreach authority?
By
James M. Berklan
Feb 05, 2019
Providers have professed gratitude for recent federal proposals to improve accountable care organizations’ design and operation. But efforts to limit healthcare utilization should be scrapped, said the...
A decline in occupancy rates and an increase in days cash-on-hand are among the findings included in CliftonLarsonAllen’s sweeping Skilled Nursing Facility Cost Comparison Report.
ACOs cut costs, not quality
By
James M. Berklan
Jun 05, 2017
Post-acute care spending dropped by 9% — or about $106 per beneficiary — without a drop in quality, a study of accountable care organizations in the Medicare Shared Savings Program has found.
CMS guidance on healthcare worker rule stuck amid legal challenges
By
Danielle Brown
Dec 02, 2021
Further guidance on the federal government’s healthcare worker COVID-19 vaccine rule that was expected to be issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services within the next two weeks could be...
Respiratory distress the cause of most post-COVID hospital readmissions
By
Alicia Lasek
Aug 25, 2020
Respiratory distress is often the culprit when a patient with COVID-19 returns to the hospital within two weeks of discharge, a study finds. These patients also have relatively high rates of COPD and hypertension.
60 Seconds with…
Mar 01, 2009
Anne Tumlinson Analyst, Avalere Health Medicare cost survey