Proposed Life Safety Code updates encourage more homelike environments
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 15, 2014
Updated fire safety regulations could encourage more home-like healthcare environments while increasing security to safeguard against wandering, according to a proposed rule announced Monday.
Emergency prep rule for long-term care should specify amount of supplies to have on hand, advocacy group...
By
Tim Mullaney
Apr 02, 2014
Long-term care facilities should have specified amounts of fuel and supplies on hand as part of a forthcoming regulation on disaster preparedness, a prominent consumer advocacy group argues.
A long-term care facility slapped with a civil monetary penalty has a chance for an independent informal dispute resolution, according to new manual guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Feds looking to QAPI, not penalties, for help
By
Elizabeth Newman
Apr 01, 2014
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services officials said they consider the upcoming Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement guidelines, not harsher penalties, as the better way to reduce adverse events...
Expert panel recommends functional status quality measures for skilled nursing facilities
By
Tim Mullaney
Mar 31, 2014
An expert panel convened by federal regulators has offered recommendations for functional status quality measures in skilled nursing facilities. Released Friday was a summary of the experts’ advice...
Reducing seniors’ drug use, one iPod at a time
By
John O'Connor
Mar 28, 2014
For reasons that are understandable yet hard to countenance, antipsychotic drugs are widely used in nursing homes. Too often over-used, according to government statistics. But it’s beginning to look...
CMS is failing to ensure that terminated skilled nursing facilities and other providers are not billing...
By
Tim Mullaney
Mar 28, 2014
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services needs to do a better job of ensuring that terminated Medicaid providers in a particular state, including skilled nursing facilities, don’t reappear in...
Medicare to cover hospice and curative care simultaneously in new demonstration program
By
Tim Mullaney
Mar 21, 2014
Medicare will reimburse both hospices furnishing palliative care and providers offering curative services under a new demonstration program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced.
Providers could lose Medicaid money and patient information due to ICD-10 transition, researchers find
By
Tim Mullaney
Mar 13, 2014
Healthcare providers could experience financial and information losses when they make the mandated transition to the new International Classification of Diseases coding system in October, according to...
Getting ready for the unthinkable
By
Richard Cheng
Mar 12, 2014
Natural disasters and catastrophic events by definition arise unpredictably and consequently do not remain even in the back of people’s minds on a consistent basis.