News

On Jan. 7, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) modified their recommendations for when a booster dose of the Moderna vaccine should be administered, and the CDC has published updated information. The booster recommendations are the same for both Pfizer and Moderna with this update.

Critical Steps Support SNF Operations; Advocacy for Assisted Living Continues

Earlier this week, Gov. Tim Walz announced two new steps his administration will take to offer financial assistance for care centers as the battle against COVID-19 continues.

Have you ever noticed how it warmed your heart when someone appreciates you? Research shows that expressing gratitude to someone who has done something to enrich your life (no matter how big or small) significantly impacts both the giver and the receiver.

As previously reported, CMS has announced that it will begin enforcing its Omnibus COVID-19 Health Care Staff Vaccination mandate for facilities located in all states where the rule is not currently blocked by a legal injunction, including Minnesota. CMS has not published new information over the past several days, but we wanted to share what we know for any readers who missed our story last week.

We continue to monitor the status of the OSHA emergency temporary standards relating to COVID-19, and here is the latest available information.

On the Minnesota Department of Health’s (MDH) long-term care call this week, the Department discussed the updated CDC guidance released on Dec. 23. It appears the CDC guidance will be adopted for our settings. MDH reported it is the intention of CMS to revise the current memos to be in alignment with this guidance. The publication timeline for updated CMS memo(s) is unknown.

Updated return-to-work guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has significantly changed from its last release. In the updated information, return to work is based upon several different variables including those who test positive, those who have been exposed, the staffing situation within the organization, and the vaccination and booster status of the health care worker (HCW).

Board of Directors Concludes National Search; Names New Association Leader

SAINT PAUL, MN (Dec. 30, 2021) – LeadingAge Minnesota has selected Kari Thurlow as its new President and Chief Executive Officer.

Thurlow, who currently serves as the Senior Vice President of Advocacy at LeadingAge Minnesota, begins her role with LeadingAge Minnesota on Jan. 3, 2022.

You have various emergency staffing resources available should you need to utilize them during the holidays.

This time of year, your senior care communities are full of fun and festivity as family and friends celebrate with the residents you serve. While joyous, vigilance is essential; the increase in visitors during this period of high transition and increased prevalence of the Omicron variant poses potential complications.

Our team is keeping a close watch for news about the CMS staff vaccination mandate and the OSHA vaccine-or-test emergency temporary standard. Here is the latest information about the status and enforcement of these two requirements.

Over the next six months, three critical hours of your time can positively impact resident safety and your organizational culture. A new opportunity is available to participate in a learning collaborative designed to provide the support you need to build and strengthen your processes for responding to urgent and emergent situations.

Following an order yesterday by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the CMS staff vaccination mandate is no longer subject to an injunction in Minnesota and 25 other states. CMS has not yet issued a statement in response to this development.

This week, Gov. Tim Walz announced a new initiative to recruit, train, and deploy at least 1,000 new certified nursing assistants for Minnesota long-term care facilities experiencing staffing shortages by the end of January. LeadingAge Minnesota and our Long-Term Care Imperative played a critical role in advocating for this initiative.

Thanks to actions taken by the legislature earlier this year and the availability of federal funds targeted to home and community-based services, Elderly Waiver (EW) rates will be increasing this year for the first time in several years. The Long-Term Care Imperative has been advocating for a reform plan for many years that would tie those rates to the actual cost of providing care, which is especially important now as providers face workforce shortages and increasing costs to attract and retain caregivers.

The Long-Term Care Imperative recently completed an analysis of care center occupancy for the first three quarters of this year, and it shows some improvement in the third quarter. However, the modest uptick still puts occupancy far below pre-pandemic levels.

A LeadingAge Minnesota staff team recently reviewed 2020 and 2021 Immediate Jeopardy (IJ) citations issued to nursing homes during survey investigations. We identified several cases in which CPR was delayed or the code status was not appropriately followed when determining whether or not to initiate CPR.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) recently informed LeadingAge Minnesota that rate notices for care centers for the 2022 calendar year will be posted much later than the statutorily required date of Nov. 15. Rates will not be available until some time in 2022.

SAINT PAUL, MN (Nov. 22, 2021) - We are facing unprecedented workforce shortages in senior care settings across our state. Many long-term care communities cannot afford to lose even one more caregiver. The actions the Governor is taking today will provide emergency staffing assistance to the exhausted professional caregivers who have been on the pandemic’s frontlines for over 20 months and will also provide financial incentives for our staff to continue their dedicated efforts for Minnesota’s seniors. 

There are 23,000 open long-term caregiver positions across the state, and each month we are losing more staff than we can recruit. A crisis of this scope requires bold solutions, and we cannot fix this problem without the State’s support. We greatly appreciate the legislative leaders who have shined a bright light on our workforce crisis and the Governor and his administration for taking swift action to step in with emergency staffing solutions for nursing homes. Today’s actions will help support the weary professional caregivers and the seniors they serve while we continue to work with the Governor and Legislature toward a permanent and lasting solution to address the staffing shortage across all senior care settings.

We look forward to our work ahead to ensure Minnesota’s seniors have access to the care they need in all the communities they call home.

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The Long-Term Care Imperative is a collaboration of LeadingAge Minnesota and Care Providers of Minnesota, two of the state’s largest long-term care associations. The Long-Term Care Imperative is committed to advancing a shared vision and future for older adult housing, health care and supportive services.

The assisted living rule contains specificity regarding several requirements of the assisted living statute, including staffing plans. The rule requires the Clinical Nurse Supervisor (CNS) to develop a staffing plan that considers several vital elements.

As providers continue preparing to implement staff vaccination mandates, here are the latest available situational updates:

CMS Omnibus COVID–19 Health Care Staff Vaccination Rule

CMS has clarified that the Phase 1 implementation deadline is Dec. 6, not Dec. 5.