Niall Brennan is the first Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services Chief Data Officer, the agency announced. He will lead the new Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics.
Replace the Five Star Quality Ratings system with points?
By
John O'Connor
Nov 17, 2014
There’s a need to fix what’s broken with the Five Star nursing homes-ratings system, and the way to do it is obvious.
The schizophrenia of patient-centered care
By
Jacqueline Vance, RNC, CDONA/LTC
Nov 11, 2014
Is it me or sometimes do the wide interpretations within the State Operations Manual (the dreaded “RED book”) make you want to question your entire existence? I mean, we’ve been working...
Providers must see clearly before they CHOW down
By
Richard Cheng
Sep 29, 2014
When a skilled nursing facility changes ownership, the change is known in healthcare vernacular as a change of ownership or “CHOW.” Because this could wind up endangering a Medicare provider...
White House to providers: New antibiotic regs on the way
By
Tim Mullaney
Sep 23, 2014
Long-term care providers should take pride in their antipsychotic reduction efforts, and certainly should work hard to meet the new goals announced Friday. But it should not escape their notice that just...
ICD-10 is around the corner, for real this time
Sep 18, 2014
There’s a looming massive report on all the hospital readmissions data in your area and the strategic plan your facility needs to pursue. It involves talking to lots of employees, gathering data,...
Stakeholders need to prepare for the loss of long-term care’s exemption to e-prescribing
By
Cynthia Morton
Sep 15, 2014
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is set to lift long-term care’s exemption from its e-prescribing rule as of Nov. 1. This is bigger news than most realize right now, and there has been...
November 1: Will you be ready?
By
David Lashar
Sep 12, 2014
This year, it is the day after Halloween that might be scary. On November 1, prescribers, pharmacies and facilities in the long-term-care industry must cease the transmission of electronic medication orders...
The end of fee for service
By
Mark Fish
Sep 12, 2014
The seeds that have flowered into the burgeoning of ACOs – groups of providers accepting the responsibility, and risk, for caring for the health of a designated patient population according to defined...
Latest therapy-billing showdown could be ominous sign for long-term care providers
By
James M. Berklan
Sep 10, 2014
Don’t let anyone tell you that long-term care operators don’t know how to read between the lines. They might not have known to fear a McKnight’s Monday news item before it broke, but...