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As noted in an earlier Advantage story, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced key changes to the Five-Star quality rating system and Nursing Home Compare effective April 24. The changes include:  

Great training for your interdisciplinary care center team – learn how to prepare for your federal fire/life safety recertification survey and know the top ten K-tags cited in Minnesota and how to avoid them. 

Now, more than ever, today’s Assisted Living/Housing-with-Services Managers and Home Care nurse managers must have a solid foundation of core knowledge and skills to be successful and serve their clients and customers well. The LeadingAge Assisted Living Certificate program was specifically designed with that in mind. 

Responding to the Congressional Telehealth Caucus's request for information, LeadingAge recommended several changes in Medicare policy to expand access to telehealth services and remote monitoring, improve patient outcomes, and control health care costs.  

Don’t delay -- the deadline for the bonus round of the HCBS Scholarship Grant is April 19. You can find the application here.  

A free conference on caring for a person with memory loss will be held on June 1 from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. at the McNamara Alumni Center. The conference is sponsored by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. 

Get practical tools, strategies and resources to help reduce client absences from your program, and the related negative impact on revenue and staffing. Find details and registration for the April 22 webinar here.

The U.S. Housing & Urban Development Department (HUD) released a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for new Section 202 funds. There is $50 million for the construction and ongoing rental subsidy of Section 202 homes. HUD expects to make approximately 30 awards. The deadline to apply is Aug. 28.  

Employer applications for the 2019 Summer Health Care Internship Program are due April 12. Care centers, home care providers and adult day services providers are encouraged to participate. 

Do you know about the Golden Circle? As you think about workforce recruitment and retention, explaining to potential new hires what your organization does is easy – and explaining how you do it is helpful. But great organizations are effective at explaining why they exist. Learn how great leaders inspire action by listening to this TED Talk from Simon Sinek explaining the Golden Circle and the importance of your “Why.” 

Registration is now open for the fourth Safe Care for Seniors regional workshop that will take place in Owatonna on May 9. You may also register for the workshops in Duluth on May 1 and Redwood Falls on May 7. The Detroit Lakes workshop on May 2 is full. 

Registration is open for the Minnesota Health Care Engineers Association (MHCEA) Spring Conference, set for Friday, May 3 at the Grand Casino Hinckley Convention Center. 

Become an Early Adopter of Align’s Employee Engagement Solution (manager/supervisor evaluation and training!), and/or two Customer Experience Solutions and receive special pricing! The Early Adopter deadline has been extended to Monday, May 13! 

Avinity and Presbyterian Homes & Services (PHS) have announced plans for a joint venture to preserve and expand affordable senior housing. 

The Minnesota House Health and Human Services (HHS) Finance Division yesterday unveiled its nearly 1,000-page budget bill, and it doesn’t contain a lot of good news for senior care providers. LeadingAge Minnesota and the Long-Term Care Imperative oppose this bill and are asking members to join us in turning up the volume on the devastating impact it could have on the growing number of seniors you serve and those who provide them with care. 

President Trump last week issued a memorandum extending Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) protections for Liberians living in the United States through March 30, 2020. It was set to expire on March 31. 

Special pricing is available for LeadingAge Minnesota members who become an early adopter of Align’s Employee Engagement Solution (manager/supervisor evaluation and training!), and/or two Customer Experience Solutions. 

The much-anticipated Assisted Living Certificate Program begins on April 25 for Assisted Living/Housing-with-Services managers and home care nurse managers. This combined training series capitalizes on shared learning for these two leadership positions and the critical intersections of their roles and responsibilities.  

Employer applications for the 2019 Summer Health Care Internship Program are due April 12. Care centers, home care providers and adult day services providers are encouraged to participate.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) announced it has awarded $8.6 million in Live Well at Home grants to help older Minnesotans remain in their homes rather than move to nursing homes or other more expensive settings. Several of the award recipients are LeadingAge Minnesota members. 

Reminder: The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is currently accepting applications for the bonus round of the HCBS Scholarship Grant. The application deadline is April 19. You can find the application here.

A bill to fix the antiquated and onerous problem of Medicare observation days has been introduced in Congress. The Improving Access to Medicare Coverage Act would require all time a Medicare beneficiary spends in a hospital to be counted toward the three-day stay requirement. 

LeadingAge has finalized its policy priorities for 2019, which includes a robust agenda on affordable housing. Funding priorities in this area include: 

The U.S Department of Labor (DOL) last week published a proposed rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that would clarify whether certain kinds of perks, benefits or other miscellaneous items must be included in the regular rate of pay. 

With the increasing workforce shortage in all business sectors, aging services organizations need to focus on what makes them stand out as a best place to work. Research shows that Millennials and Generation Z find the mission and meaning of organizations to be acutely important when making their employment decisions – lucky for us in older adult services!  

We’ve seen the light – and it does more than just allow us to see things better. It also plays a significant role in our physiology, or what we often call our “internal clock.” Light helps regulate many of our biological responses that impact our physical, mental and behavioral states. This daily response to changes in light is called the Circadian Rhythm, and the LeadingAge Minnesota Savings & Solutions Center is exploring solutions in this area to help you improve the lives of the residents you serve by controlling the type of light they see. 

It has been another busy week at the State Capitol as the House and Senate push to meet its second policy deadline on Friday. Committees are working day and night to squeeze bills into hearing agendas to keep certain pieces of legislation alive. Governor Walz released his supplemental budget recommendations and is prepping for his first State of the State address on April 3. And we are deep in the trenches advocating and testifying – in favor and in opposition – on bills that have a direct impact on our field and the people we serve. 

The House Long Term Care Committee advanced a Disability Waiver Rate System (DWRS) bill to its next committee stop this week that will be helpful in some ways to DWRS providers if it ultimately becomes law, but also impose new burdens. 

Three new regional workshops have been scheduled to help you take the next step in your Safe Care for Seniors action plan. The workshops will take place May 1 in Duluth, May 2 in Detroit Lakes and May 7 in Redwood Falls. And get ready District F: we are working on a fourth workshop that will take place in Owatonna in early May. See the Workshop Conference Brochure and Register Today!  

Become an Early Adopter of Align’s Employee Engagement Solution (manager/supervisor evaluation and training!), and/or two Customer Experience Solutions and receive special pricing!