News

The Diversity & Inclusion Council at Ecumen was 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 people with respect and dignity – always.  

LeadingAge Minnesota members can now access a new, free tool that will help address one of the biggest needs we hear from providers across the state: behavioral health. The Behavioral Health Training Series: Improving Care With Curiosity and Empathy provides easy-to-understand concepts, practical tips, and professional development that will help prepare staff to work with older adults with behavioral health needs.  

The LeadingAge Minnesota Foundation is excited to announce it is now accepting Request for Proposals (RFPs) for the second round of the Project ECHO Assisted Living Communities program. The deadline for submission is Friday, Nov. 15. 

Thinking of ways to expose potential employees to your community for possible recruitment? Give the prospective employee – and you – a chance to try out older adult services by creating a new position called a Resident Concierge Representative (RCR). Cassia, an affiliation between Elim Care and Augustana Care, created this new position at a few of its sites and is already seeing positive outcomes in recruitment and retention.   

Assisted living residents, family members, advocates, providers and other stakeholders can help the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) develop a new Assisted Living Report Card by completing an online survey and/or attending a statewide livestream event in November. 

We have launched our new membership database, and are excited to introduce you to a new feature that gives you more control over your user account, event registration, ordering from our online store and more! Meet My.LeadingAgeMN.org. Our new Community Hub is a member-facing online portal that allows you to:  

Despite advocacy from LeadingAge, its members and other stakeholders (see McKnight’s Long-Term Care News for reporting on recent efforts and this opinion piece from LeadingAge CEO Katie Sloan), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will proceed with its plan to use a Consumer Alert Icon on Nursing Home Compare beginning Oct. 23 to identify settings with instances of non-compliance related to abuse, neglect and exploitation. It will also cap the Health Inspections rating under the Five-Star Quality Rating System at two stars for settings that receive the icon.  

LeadingAge has just released the IMAGINE Initiative – a bold set of proposals to increase the number of foreign-born aging services workers available in the United States. 

As we featured in this week’s Advantage, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will begin issuing a Consumer Alert Icon on the Nursing Home Compare website to identify nursing homes with instances of non-compliance related to abuse, neglect and exploitation and will cap the Health Inspections rating under the Five-Star Quality Rating System at two stars for facilities that receive the icon shown below: 

More than 425 LeadingAge Minnesota member sites have made the Safe Care for Seniors Pledge and the commitment to implement a 5-Step Action Plan that will help create safe, trusted and inclusive environments and prevent harm that can occur in the course of caregiving. We will soon release our Safe Care for Seniors Committed Organization list. Are you on it?  

The 34th Annual Skilled Nursing Facility Cost Comparison and Industry Trends Report released by CliftonLarsonAllen last week shows the median operating margin in care centers has dipped below zero. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced this week that it will use a Consumer Alert Icon on the Nursing Home Compare website to identify nursing homes with instances of non-compliance related to abuse, neglect and exploitation and will penalize these settings under the Five-Star Quality Rating System.  

Looking to create and enhance safe, trusted and inclusive environments where staff feel connected and appreciated, engaged in their work and your mission, and know they can speak up to prevent harm and ensure respect and dignity for all who live and work in your setting? Introducing: Leadership Rounding -- the latest tool from Safe Care for Seniors. 

Each day, dedicated staff in LeadingAge Minnesota member settings across the state are going above and beyond to create safe, trusted environments for the people they serve and their fellow team members. Today, we recognize four individuals and four staff teams with our Make Zero Harm Possible award.   

It is important that care centers remember that a mandatory Interim Payment Assessment (IPA) is required to transition from Resource Utilization Group, version IV (RUG-IV) to the Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) as of Oct. 1.    

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) is seeking proposals for the new Customized Living Quality Improvement Grants, which support provider-initiated projects that improve quality, encourage innovation and advance efficient, high quality service.  

October District Meetings will feature a one-hour session on the new electronic monitoring law that will take effect Jan. 1, 2020. Business Partner Attorney Rebecca Coffin will review what the current law says (and doesn’t say), as well as the changes ahead that you need to understand for when the people you serve want to install an electronic monitoring device.  

Governor Tim Walz appointed Gayle Kvenvold, President & CEO of LeadingAge Minnesota, to the newly-created Blue Ribbon Commission on Health and Human Services.  

Through a unique partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association nationally and here in Minnesota, the LeadingAge Minnesota Foundation is excited to announce an opportunity for our assisted living members to participate in Project ECHO—an internationally recognized training program to build skills and capacity in serving those with chronic, common and complex diseases.  

We are now less than two weeks from implementation of the new Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) that will take effect for Medicare Part A skilled nursing facility clients on Oct. 1. LeadingAge MN has developed a number of key resources to help members with this transition. Below are five key steps for members to be sure they have taken before the new payment system goes into effect: