Tragicomically, CMS asserts “this final rule will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities[.]”
Medicare Advantage: A not-so-advantageous deal for beneficiaries and providers
By
Brendan Williams
Nov 29, 2023
Open enrollment is well underway for Medicare, as television viewers inundated with cheesy insurance company ads can tell. Those ads must work. For the first time 2024 will see most Medicare...
If only nursing homes were banks
By
Brendan Williams
Mar 17, 2023
I went to high school in Iowa, where 19 nursing homes closed in 2022 alone. Surely, you might think, this has prompted a federal response.It isn’t. Instead, the federal government has chosen to bail...
CMS should bring its oversight hammer down . . . on states
By
Brendan Williams
Oct 17, 2022
CMS has an absolute hammer when it comes to accepting, or rejecting, state Medicaid rates that it finds fail to substantially comply with federal law,
A beast of a month leads nursing homes closer to the brink
By
Brendan Williams
Apr 22, 2022
Providers can be forgiven for thinking that at this terribly perilous moment, those looking to administer the coup de grâce have been empowered.
Must we let COVID waltz in the front door?
By
Brendan Williams
Jan 14, 2022
My son is a freshman at a public university in the state of Washington that made the abrupt decision, late afternoon on the last day one could withdraw and receive a tuition refund, to go to online instruction...
The floggings will continue until morale improves
By
Brendan Williams
Jun 25, 2020
Caught in the throes of a pandemic lethal to those they serve, nursing homes have been largely abandoned by policymakers. The $4.9 billion in federal relief provided in May was very welcome. However,...
Hospitals are heroic, while nursing homes are always to blame
By
Brendan Williams
Apr 29, 2020
Hospitals have always enjoyed “most favored nation” status in healthcare, and that’s even more true during the COVID-19 pandemic. But apparently you can’t have heroes without villains. While lauding...
Facts, not anecdotes, must guide long-term care policy
By
Brendan Williams
Feb 14, 2020
An oft-repeated canard that bedevils advocates for facility-based care is the assertion, by an organization that peddles Medicare insurance products, that “90% of people don’t want to be in a nursing...
Block grants won’t lead to cost-cutting efficiency
By
Brendan Williams
May 31, 2019
Eviscerating the social safety net through block grants can only further contribute to a dystopian future for aging adults and all others on Medicaid.