COVID-19 a bigger threat to seniors than pneumonia, real-world study finds
By
Alicia Lasek
Feb 09, 2023
COVID-19 is much more deadly than bacterial or viral pneumonia, causing double the mortality rate in older, hospitalized adults, investigators say.
CDC: Deaths from antibiotic-resistant bacteria jumped 15% in 2020
By
Alicia Lasek (f3)
Jul 13, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic has “pushed back years of progress” in combating antimicrobial resistance in the United States, the CDC reports.
Why more long-term care operators are being nudged upstream
By
John O'Connor
Jun 12, 2022
There is continuing debate in long-term care about whether future success lies in upstream (increasingly healthcare focused) or downstream (increasingly service focused) services.
Valid dementia verdict? Nursing home and hospital diagnoses now better aligned, study finds
By
Alicia Lasek
May 03, 2021
Medicare’s dementia claim measures appear to have become more sensitive in recent years, agreeing more closely with hospital-based measures overall and for certain populations than in the past, investigators...
Interoperability is more important than ever
Sep 30, 2016
While hospital administrators or doctors may say that a note is a note, an assessment is an assessment, or a chart is a chart, they aren’t acknowledging the uniqueness of the post-acute care environment—for...
‘Observation status’ provision under further review
By
John Hall
Feb 27, 2015
The American Health Care Association on Thursday applauded a House measure that would inform Medicare beneficiaries of their observation status as hospital inpatient or outpatients. But that might be little...
Provider groups push for RAC reform
By
John Hall
Feb 06, 2015
Hospital industry groups said Thursday they’d rather the government reform the Recovery Audit Contractor program than simply throw more money at fixing an onerous backlog of more than 800,000 Medicare...
This year holds promise for post-acute care
By
Stephanie Anthony
Jan 12, 2015
Hospitals traditionally have viewed a patient’s discharge as the endpoint of their care responsibilities. In reality, hospital stays frequently are just one step in ongoing episodes of care. Ensuring...
QAPI: Avoiding the cost of non-compliance
By
Bill Lampe
Dec 06, 2013
An initiative that should be top of mind for facilities is the Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI), an extension of the Affordable Care Act that is focused on improving quality of care...
New calculation method would reduce readmissions penalties, CMS says
By
McKnight's Staff
Apr 30, 2013
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed changing the way hospital readmission penalties are calculated as part of its 2014 Medicare rate update. Potential readmissions penalties for long-term...