‘Outliers’ beware: Medicaid transparency rule will track staff spending patterns
By
Kimberly Marselas
May 08, 2024
While a new Medicaid transparency rule for nursing homes doesn’t go as far as a similar measure dictating how home and personal care providers spend their money, data collected through new reporting...
Wait-and-see staffing rule exemptions meant to ‘safeguard’ residents: CMS
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 25, 2024
Skilled nursing providers will not have to go through a stand-alone application process to be exempted from provisions of a new federal staffing mandate, an official with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid...
Providers: Staffing rule a CMS ‘fairy tale’ that will ‘exacerbate’ nursing home access issue
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 23, 2024
Despite minor concessions in a staffing mandate issued Monday, many nursing home providers were shell-shocked by what they saw as federal regulators’ intractable stance on minimums at a time when nearly...
After dry spells, providers get vital Medicaid increases. Now the big fear: Will they be ‘1-and-done’?
By
Jessica R. Towhey
Kimberly Marselas
Jun 12, 2023
As Medicaid negotiations successfully continue in various states, worries are already arising about how to sustain increases
Opponents of the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers are pursuing two fresh pathways to defeat it. Both challenges cite the pandemic’s current, less critical stage...
States push CMS to repeal COVID-19 vaccine mandate
By
Kimberly Marselas
Lois A. Bowers
Nov 18, 2022
A coalition of 22 states is taking a new angle in its attempts to overturn a national mandate requiring that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19: They’re simply asking federal regulators...
States need to step up with nurse aide waiver clearer, providers say
By
Kimberly Marselas
Aug 31, 2022
The formal extension of a waiver program that relaxes certification requirements for some nurse aides was widely embraced by providers a day after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced...
Feds’ spotlight on owners could detract from patient focus, experts warn
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 21, 2022
An effort to improve transparency into nursing home ownership took a major leap forward when federal officials posted previously non-public data Wednesday. But providers and legal experts cautioned that...
Nursing home pay rule reveals CMS strategy on minimum staffing
By
Kimberly Marselas
Apr 13, 2022
If there’s one thing nursing home providers, consumer advocates and regulators can all agree on when it comes to the development of a federal minimum staffing rule, it might be just how difficult the...
BREAKING: CMS vaccine mandate upheld
By
Kimberly Marselas
James M. Berklan
Jan 13, 2022
A vaccine requirement for staff at all U.S. nursing homes and other federally funded healthcare facilities can proceed, the Supreme Court said in a 5-4 decision Thursday afternoon.