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Providers that recently applied for an assisted living license (ALL) must take three easy but essential steps by July 1 to ensure the application's approval and prepare for the Aug. 1 implementation date.

On Wednesday, June 16 from 9-10 a.m., Age-Friendly Minnesota invites you to join a Statewide Stakeholder Meeting to learn more about how you can engage with this initiative.

The next Assisted Living/Home Care Nurse Leaders Network (ALNET) meeting is scheduled for June 24 from 10–11:30 a.m.

This summer's District Meetings will be held starting on June 8. Except for District F, which will meet in person in July, all meetings will be held virtually and will go from 1 – 3 p.m.

If you haven’t done so already, please make sure to sign up for district meetings and earn your CEUs.

There are new requirements for clinical departments related to the new assisted living licensure. On June 29 and 30, a two-part virtual webinar series, Assisted Living Licensure Clinical Workshop, provides nurses an in-depth review of the requirements for clinical departments related to the new assisted living license.

The 2021 virtual Institute is now available for on-demand viewing and earning CEUs from June 1 through July 31.

More than 3,300 people attended the live broadcast of this virtual conference May 18-21, and even more are expected to log in to access all the educational sessions and keynote presentations.

The LeadingAge Minnesota Board of Directors will meet for a virtual strategic planning retreat on June 22. We are asking each member site to respond to a quick, 4-minute survey to inform its work.

On May 6, 2021, and in conjunction with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Kidde voluntarily announced a recall to replace Kidde TruSense Smoke and Combination Smoke/Carbon Monoxide Alarms. In certain instances, the product may experience a delay in detection or may fail to detect smoke, which could compromise the alarms' ability to alert consumers to a potential fire.

A new AgingServicesJobs.Org platform is now available!

The new platform allows long-term care employers to view candidate resumes, store resumes, and monitor/manage job postings. This service includes an online job board, recruitment advertising, resume bank, career advice, resume services, coaching services, and other career services.

This week, lawmakers mainly met in private to debate the specific spending details for each budget area. The first of two self-imposed deadlines passed on Friday, May 28, without any public notice of the finalized details of the budget. The second deadline, June 4, is quickly approaching; lawmakers to agree on what policy provisions will be included in the final deal when Governor Walz calls a special session on June 14. Here is what you need to know about what is happening at the capitol this week:

Beginning this year, the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) is now conducting two surveys on the cost of providing services in Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) settings. Both surveys are being conducted this summer and are based on random samples of providers.

Monday, June 7 and Thursday, June 10 are the final sessions scheduled for our COVID-19 Vaccine Ambassador training. The training is free. If you’re interested in signing up, please email Jenna Kellerman to register by June 4.

Featuring Dr. Alyson VanAhn from Associated Clinic of Psychology

We've talked about resilience as "bouncing back" from hardship for many months now. But what does it mean to try bouncing back when actual burnout has set in? How about keeping up with leadership and management roles when you feel less able to keep organized and optimistic as we try to move forward?

LeadingAge Minnesota has pulled together recent data on vaccination rates, both for long-term care staff in Minnesota and the general population in Minnesota. While progress is continuing in the general population, the pace of improvement in long-term care has slowed recently.

As of Wednesday, June 2, the assisted living license conversion application has been frozen, and the deadline to apply has passed. However, if you did not submit your application, you can still move ahead with a provisional application to comply with licensure requirements by Aug. 1.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its COVID-19 guidance regarding employers and COVID-19 vaccines. The expanded guidance provides new information about how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) apply when an employer offers incentives for employees to confirm vaccination when an employee gets a vaccine in the community or from the employer or its agent. The critical updates to the guidance are as follows:

The Upper Midwest Nursing Home COVID-19 ECHO Collaborative invites you to join the ECHO community.

Drop into one of our Minnesota Training Center weekly 60-minute real-time interactive sessions. Prior participation is not required. Sessions are open to participants from both skilled nursing and assisted living.

Beginning this year, providers of services to disability waiver clients must submit information on the cost of providing services to DHS.  Providers are selected to submit information through the Disability Waiver Rate System (DWRS) cost reporting platform every five years. Providers selected for this first year were notified at the end of March.

This summer’s District Meetings will be held starting on June 8. Except for District F, which will meet in person in July, all meetings will be held virtually and will go from 1 – 3 p.m.

There are new requirements for clinical departments related to the new assisted living licensure. A two-part virtual webinar series, Assisted Living Licensure Clinical Workshop, on June 29 and 30, provides nurses an in-depth review of the requirements for clinical departments related to the new assisted living licensure.

More than 3,300 professionals attended the 2021 virtual Institute last week. All sessions and keynote presentations are available for registered individuals to access on-demand viewing and earning CEUs from June 1 through July 31.

LeadingAge Minnesota’s Leadership Academy 2021 Class of Fellows has been selected and will convene virtually on June 2.

Since 2010, Leadership Academy has developed leadership capacity and core competencies of more than 300 aging services professionals by tapping their natural talents and authentic leadership style. It blends leadership theory, applied learning, and personalized coaching to mentor current and emerging leaders in our field.

Please join LeadingAge on Thursday, June 10 at 1 p.m. CT for a conversation about preserving pre-1974 Section 202 Direct Loan affordable senior housing communities. Nationally, there are more than 10,000 pre-1974 Section 202 Direct Loan apartments.

The Minnesota State Fire Marshal (SFM) Healthcare Inspections team has posted several forms that nursing facilities can use to document required inspection of certain life safety features in your buildings. During our Institute last week, SFM inspector Roy Kingsley presented a session on commonly-cited life safety code deficiencies. As part of that, he emphasized the importance of thorough documentation.

With Assisted Living Licensure taking effect on Aug. 1, those settings that provide customized living services under the DHS waiver programs need to take action to ensure continued waiver payment. This document from the Long-term Care Imperative covers various scenarios and how to proceed with updating provider enrollment. Note that we have updated this document based on some DHS comments since the version in Advantage last week.

Care centers are asked to make an annual Case Mix Election to determine the rate for Medical Assistance and private pay residents who stay 14 days or less. Providers choose either to do a Minimum Data Set (MDS) for all such residents and bill based on that case mix or decide not to do MDS and bill at the default (DDF case mix) rate.

The annual recalculation of the Housing Support, formerly Group Residential Housing (GRH), which covers rent and raw food for eligible participants, has increased by $20 per month. The new rate of $954 will be effective July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022.

Earlier this week, the Board of Executives for Long-term Services and Supports (BELTSS) requested patience from Licensed Assisted Living Director (LALD) applicants, provided an update on the licensing of Assisted Living Directors, and communicated a delay in the opening of applications for AL Directors in Residence.

This week, lawmakers are approaching a May 28, self-imposed deadline to decide how to allocate the money announced in the recent budget deal by legislative leaders last Monday. Throughout the week, only one legislative committee met publicly. There have yet to be any specific spending details released by budget area. With a looming special session presumed to happen on or before June 14, here is what you need to know about what is happening at the capitol this week.

LeadingAge Minnesota has pulled together recent data on vaccination rates, both for long-term care staff in Minnesota as well as the general population in Minnesota.