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Nearly 450 LeadingAge Minnesota member sites have taken the Safe Care for Seniors Pledge and committed to the 5-Step Action Plan! Don’t be left behind. Register today for the Aug. 5 Safe Care for Seniors Workshop and take your first step on a safety and quality journey that will benefit all who live and work in your setting. 

Senator and presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) last week announced A Plan for Seniors, a comprehensive plan that tackles Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, enhances health care and retirement security, reduces prescription drug prices, supports a world-class long-term care workforce, and combats senior fraud and abuse.  

Nominations are now open for two elected Director-at-Large positions on the LeadingAge Minnesota Board of Directors. The terms begin on Jan. 1, 2020 and run for three years with eligibility for re-election to a second, three-year term.  

Is your organization ready for the Oct.1 implementation of Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM), the new Medicare Part A payment classification system? Take advantage of these upcoming education and training opportuniteis:

Bob Kramer, founder and strategic advisor for the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care (NIC), will be a featured presenter at the upcoming Annual Meeting & Leadership Forum, Sept. 17-20 at Madden’s in Brainerd.  

The first annual Connect Conference, Aug. 20-21 in Brooklyn Center, brings together Senior Housing, Assisted Living, Home Care and Adult Day providers for a two-day interactive experience full of education, idea sharing and important conversations about how we will serve older adults in the decades ahead. The early bird registration deadline is July 22 – less than two weeks away.  

An all staff meeting is a great opportunity to communicate and listen, allowing everyone to hear the same information at the same time.  

The November 2019 implementation and compliance date for Phase III of the Requirements of Participation is fast approaching. Are you ready for the new and additional training requirements in Cultural Competence and Trauma-Informed Care or the new and strengthened language around person-centered care and abuse prevention?  

President Donald Trump signed two Executive Orders last month that will interest LeadingAge members. The first is focused on reducing and removing regulatory burdens that raise the cost of housing development. The second relates to price transparency in health care, but does not apply to aging services providers.  

The U.S. House approved a bill that increases overall HUD funding by 7%, rejecting the White House’s request to cut thr HUD budget by 18% for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. For HUD’s Section 202 Housing for the Elderly account, the bill increases funding by almost 19% compared to fiscal year 2019.

Registration is open for a two-day Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP) Train-the-Trainer event for providers on Aug.13 and 14. The training, which is primarily intended for those responsible for training staff at care centers, includes:   

A new requirement effective Aug. 1 requires providers to document that they have checked the Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) Excluded Group Providers and Excluded Individual Providers each month.  

Did you take the Safe Care for Seniors pledge and find yourself asking “now what?” Get that answer and more at our final in-person Safe Care for Seniors workshop on Monday, Aug. 5 in Saint Paul. Register Today!   

The deadline for the annual salary survey, which is a joint project of LeadingAge Minnesota, Care Providers of Minnesota, and the Healthcare Human Resources Association of Minnesota, has been extended until the end of July for those members who have not returned it yet. 

Despite a continued trend of improved financial performance in care centers that started in 2016, new data from the Nursing Facility Financial Indicators survey makes clear that providers continue to face significant financial challenges.   

Registration is now open for the 2019 Annual Meeting & Leadership Forum, Sept. 17-20 at Madden’s in Brainerd. Fresh off a year of significant disruption and challenge and a historic legislative session, Annual Meeting is the place where leaders with vision will gather to form community, assess our challenges and opportunities and to formulate strategies to navigate the future. 

Look to LeadingAge Minnesota for your training needs to prepare for the Oct.1 implementation of Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM), the new Medicare Part A payment classification system. Don’t miss these opportunities:  

The popular Assisted Living Certificate Program kicks off the fall series on August 6. This six-part program is a comprehensive series for assisted living/housing-with-services managers and home care nurse managers to build essential skills and knowledge required for these essential leadership positions.  

Housing, Assisted Living, Home Care and Adult Day providers take note, the early bird registration deadline for the first annual Connect Conference is July 22 – less than three weeks away. 

Stay Interviews are a great way to connect with staff. These structured conversations can help leaders touch base with new staff to ensure the onboarding process is a positive experience and also be used with long-standing staff to find out what your organization does well. What keeps loyal staff coming back each day?  

The Minnesota Historical Society has developed several offerings for adults with dementia and their caregivers. Resources, tools and community engagement opportunities for residents and clients of care centers, assisted living, and Adult Day Service include:  

Anxiety is one of the leading causes of hospital readmissions and crosses many diagnoses. A new toolkit developed on behalf of the Lake Superior Quality Improvement Network (QIN) will help transitional care units and home care agencies prepare staff to mitigate anxiety symptoms and offer integrated therapy programs to alleviate anxiety and improve outcomes.  

LeadingAge national has launched new tools to enhance and expand our aging advocate network.   

For long-term care infection preventions, sometimes the hardest part of Antibiotic Stewardship is just getting started. Minnesota One Health Antibiotic Stewardship Collaborative has posted new resources and tools to support Antibiotic Stewardship in Long-Term Care on the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) website.  

A new proposed rule from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks to eliminate nondiscrimination protections in health care and aging services settings for LGBT people and those with limited English proficiency. LeadingAge Minnesota opposes the proposed rule’s removal of these protections.  

Growing demand for adult day services is putting new expectations on providers, including a need to serve people with more medical needs -- and providers, including those in Minnesota, are rising to the challenge.  

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is shifting the way in which it works with community providers to expand the provider network and improve customer service for veterans and timeliness of payment for providers. 

Over the past eight months, a diverse group of stakeholders from across the state have created a pathway of drug diversion prevention safety interventions based on learnings from drug diversion cases reported to the State and review of current research and practices. The result of this collaborative process will be unveiled at our Drug Diversion Prevention Seminar on Aug. 13 in Saint Paul.  

AgingServicesJOBS.Org is a cutting-edge employment marketplace that matches employers with job-seekers based on skills, interests and job requirements. Effective June 30, the rate to post a job was adjusted as the generous financial support from the LeadingAge Minnesota Foundation that allowed members to post jobs for one year at a discounted rate came to an end as planned.   

Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA) President and CEO Lawrence “Lorry” J. Massa, M.S., FACHE, has announced that he will retire in September 2019. Massa has led the association, which represents 141 hospitals and health systems, for nearly 11 years.