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LeadingAge Minnesota staff and members are participating in three processes this week that will shape the next generation of assisted living.  

2020 is fast approaching! You won’t want to miss these conferences and events next year. Open your calendars and save the dates for:  

Kortoe Mikely, Nursing/Home Health Aide at St. Therese of New Hope, recently received the Make Zero Harm Possible Award from LeadingAge Minnesota.

Who are the top influencers in your organization? Influencers may not be formal leaders, managers, or directors. In fact, it’s likely that your top influencers are frontline staff.  

Check your email! Organization leaders in our member settings this week received an email from Jenna Kellerman, Director of Workforce Solutions for LeadingAge Minnesota, with a link to a 5-minute survey about staff engagement practices in senior care.  

Looming deadlines pose a potential threat to two programs that help older adults remain in their homes or assisted living while saving consumers and the State of Minnesota money. Rules on spousal impoverishment and funding for the Money Follows the Person demonstration project are both set to expire Dec. 31 unless Congress acts.  

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) is seeking public comments through Jan. 2, 2020 on evidentiary packages related to the heightened scrutiny process under the Home and Community-Based Settings rule. Adult day, customized living, foster care, and prevocational/structured day services are included in this set of evidentiary packages, including several LeadingAge Minnesota members. 

The banding process for disability waiver rates, which ties the rates paid to many providers to their historical rate rather than paying the full Disability Waiver Rate System (DWRS) rate, is ending in 2020.  The end of banding will mean rate changes for adult day and other providers serving disability waiver clients.  

More than a dozen LeadingAge Minnesota members have completed their 5-Step Action Plan and will soon be announced to our first-ever Safe Care for Seniors Action Honor Roll. Are you ready to join them? Let us know by completing your Safe Care for Seniors Self-Assessment. 

As we covered in last week’s Advantage, LeadingAge Minnesota in partnership with Voigt, Rode, Boxeth and Coffin have developed sample templates to assist you in developing policies and communications for the new electronic monitoring requirements that go into effect Jan. 1, 2020. The templates are now available!  

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that the Phase 3 Requirements of Participation for care centers will take effect Nov. 28, but the agency will not release interpretive guidance and training materials for these requirements until early 2020. 

Ready to join the movement that is sweeping across aging services settings in Minnesota? Join us on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 11 a.m. for The Basics: An Introduction to Safe Care for Seniors webinar. 

Our new Staff Behavioral Health Training is now available. The six-part training series, which is free for LeadingAge Minnesota members, is provided via brief videos and e-learning workbooks -- making it easy for staff to fit in the training during their shift. To help you easily access the series, we have created a direct link and quick video to help you download this incredible staff resource.   

Shyann Topel, Safety Director and Safe Care for Seniors Champion at Buffalo Lake Health Care Center, is the most recent recipient of the Make Zero Harm Possible Award from LeadingAge Minnesota. The award recognizes staff in aging services settings who demonstrate their commitment to safe, quality care and to treating the people they serve with respect and dignity – always. 

Technology is transforming senior living, from helping older adults stay connected, receive care and services at home, and stimulate physical and cognitive abilities to positively contributing to workforce recruitment and retention. What are the six themes helping providers choose their next tech steps?   

You can help people transcend their job titles by supporting both their personal and professional goals. 

Have 5 minutes? Want to know key insights into staff retention? Get ready to take a brief survey next week to help us and you better understand the state of employee engagement practices in our field.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently awarded a five-year contract to Superior Health Quality Alliance (Superior Health) to serve as a Quality Innovation Network – Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. 

A new bill in Congress, the Quality Care for Nursing Home Residents Act, would revise minimum staffing requirements for skilled nursing settings that participate in Medicare and Medicaid. LeadingAge opposes the legislation as it fails to address the underlying causes and rising challenges of workforce shortages across the long-term care continuum.  

The Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging (MAAA) is advising Medicare Beneficiaries who have used the Medicare Plan Finder to call health plans and confirm costs. 

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has provided clarifying guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on food safety requirements regarding refrigeration temperatures. When checking refrigeration temperatures, CMS said that the actual temperature of the food should be checked and that surveyors should not cite based just on the refrigerator thermometer readings. 

As part of the new discharge planning rule that is effective Nov. 29, hospitals are required to provide patients preparing to transition from acute care to post-acute care with access to information about their provider choices. The information includes performance on quality and resource utilization measures, such as number of pressure ulcers, proportion of falls that lead to injury, and number of readmissions back to the hospital.  

The new electronic monitoring requirements for nursing homes and assisted living go into effect Jan. 1, 2020. To help you prepare for the new requirements, we will soon provide you with templates you can use to develop policies and communicate the changes to residents and staff. 

The former president and chief executive officer of the Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA), Lawrence “Lorry” Massa passed away peacefully at his home in Alexandria on Nov. 22. 

One of the greatest challenges facing our field, our state and our country just hit the national stage. Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg this week introduced his Dignity and Security in Retirement proposal to ensure every American has access to affordable health care. 

LeadingAge Minnesota last week submitted recommendations and guidance to the Board of Examiners of Nursing Home Administrators (BENHA) on several issues related to rules development of the Licensed Assisted Living Director credential. 

When you said one of your greatest needs for staff training is behavioral health, we listened and responded. A new video training series from LeadingAge Minnesota is now available -- and it’s free!  

Looking for ways to energize frontline staff? Ask them to identify and solve problems that can save time and improve care using the free ICan: Quality & Innovation from the Front-Line program.  

Benedictine Health System announced 14 communities were recognized in the 2019-2020 U.S. News and World Report “Best Nursing Homes” report as high-performers in overall quality in both the nursing home and short-stay rehabilitation categories.  

The Safe Care Champions from St. Therese of Woodbury were recently recognized with a Make Zero Harm Possible award from LeadingAge Minnesota. The award recognizes individuals and staff teams in aging services settings who demonstrate their commitment to safe, quality care and to treating the people they serve with respect and dignity – always.