News

LeadingAge Minnesota recently learned that Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) is proposing to return to fully-compliant, fingerprint-based background studies process sometime in the near future.

This week the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) released long-awaited recommendations on modifying visitation policies in aging services settings. The recommendations are effective August 29, 2020 and apply both to nursing homes and housing with services/assisted living settings.
 

Leading Change. Changing Lives. That is more than our promise. It is our purpose. During our recent LeadingAge Minnesota Board of Directors meeting, we re-committed to positive and lasting social change through not only our words but our actions.
 

A recent survey of LeadingAge Minnesota members illustrates the negative impact of the nearly four-month mandated closure of Adult Day Services on participants and family caregivers. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) this week issued a proposed rule that announces and seeks public comments on proposed policy changes for Medicare Part B payments, on or after January 1, 2021.  Click here for fact sheet describing the proposed rule.  While policy analysts are still combing through the 1300-page proposal, several issues stand out as important for aging services providers. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final version of the annual Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Payment Rule that updates rates for the second year of the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) which starts on Oct. 1. The Oct. 1 rates include an inflation update of 2.2% based on a formula in existing law.  

We have gathered additional details about the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ initiative to supply rapid point-of-care antigen testing instruments and tests to nursing homes throughout the country to aid in identification and mitigation of COVID-19. 

There have been reports of students who have completed Nursing Assistant training but have not yet been able to complete testing, running into roadblocks to being hired. Some of these roadblocks include applications designed to ask students for their nursing assistant registry number before being allowed to move forward in the application process, recruiters expecting applicants to be on the Nursing Assistant Registry and students being asked multiple times for copies of their certification. 

The 2020 LeadingAge Minnesota Nominating Committee, chaired by Mark Anderson, CEO of Knute Nelson in Alexandria, has announced that nominations are open for board members and officers of the LeadingAge Minnesota Board of Directors and for individuals eligible to elected as Lifetime Honorary Members.   

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) last week announced plans to supply rapid, point-of-care testing instruments and tests to nursing homes throughout the country to aid in the fight against COVID-19.  

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) will soon post information about reimbursement of COVID-19 testing costs for employees to the nursing facility portal.  The new information includes a memo outlining the reimbursement policy and an updated “Form A” to submit for reimbursement of costs related to the Covid-19 state emergency, which now includes employee testing costs. 

The Blue Ribbon Commission created by the Minnesota Legislature in 2019 to identify recommendations that would save $100 million in state health and human services expenditures over the coming biennium is soliciting public and stakeholder input on its draft final report. 

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) last week released new guidance that allows the designation of an Essential Caregiver for residents of nursing homes and assisted living. This guidance represents the next interim step in encouraging safe and responsible visitation during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Long-Term Care Imperative has recently finished a special analysis of occupancy data for the first half of 2020. As anticipated, the results show that the spread of COVID-19 had a major negative impact on care center occupancy in the second quarter.  However, the impact varied by region and did not hit every provider at all. 

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) recently provided LeadingAge Minnesota with statements of deficiencies from 120 focused infection control surveys of Minnesota nursing homes conducted during April and May 2020. To assist members in preparing for future surveys, we have prepared a new resource: Focused Infection Control Surveys in Nursing Homes - Deficient Practices Commonly Cited by the Minnesota Department of Health. 

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) continues to work on recommendations for nursing homes and housing with services/assisted living settings to modify general visitation, but there still is not a firm timeline for release of those recommendations. 

As usual, we have emailed an occupancy survey to all care centers to complete. However, these are not usual times so we are going to approach reporting the results quite differently. We are asking for responses ASAP so we can do a couple of reports of the results starting with one before the end of July. 

Members have raised questions this week about background studies, so we wanted to share an update about what we know:   

Earlier this month the Minnesota Department of Health shared with LeadingAge Minnesota the results from Focused Infection Control surveys of Minnesota nursing homes during April and May.  As we reported earlier, 120 facilities were cited for deficient practice(s), all of those at F880 and with only 4 being cited at scope and severity level G or above. 

COVID-19 is not over. The lives of seniors in our settings are at risk. Our healthcare workers are risking their lives without appropriate PPE, testing and funding. Watch this powerful message from our partners at LeadingAge. Then ask the Minnesotans who represent us in Washington for crucial resources and immediate relief to help fight COVID. Here are two thing you can do now: