News

The federal push to standardize quality in home and community-based services (HCBS) just got a lot more concrete, and a bit more complicated.

As reported by LeadingAge National, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has taken a more stringent approach to reviewing Form I-9 documentation, raising compliance risks for employers.

In March 2026, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General released two reports examining how nursing homes administer antipsychotic medications to residents.

Malnutrition is one of the most common—and most overlooked—clinical conditions in long-term care. While interdisciplinary teams are actively assessing, monitoring, and intervening, one critical step is often missed: accurate coding on the Minimum Data Set (MDS).

A March 26, 2026 Executive Order (EO) prohibits federal contractors from engaging in “racially discriminatory DEI activities” described as unethical and inefficient.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) bases its median family income estimates on data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). In November, the Census Bureau announced a delay in its release of ACS data.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released updates to the State Operations Manual on January 30, 2026. The new changes are effective March 30, 2026. Updates were made to Chapter 5, which outlines complaint investigations and processes, and Chapter 7, which relates to the long-term care survey process.

Last week, Kari Thurlow, LeadingAge Minnesota’s President and CEO and Kelly Conrad, Director of Assisted Living Services, joined Argentum in Washington, D.C. to advocate for policies that strengthen senior living communities and support older adults across Minnesota and the nation.

For years, skilled nursing facilities have told their quality story primarily through the MDS. If it wasn’t coded on the assessment, it often didn’t exist in the eyes of CMS quality measures. That framework is now changing—decisively.

On January 23, 2026, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) posted a press release directing federally-assisted housing providers to immediately “audit” tenant eligibility based on immigration status.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has published a final rule updating its civil monetary penalty (CMP) amounts to reflect inflation, under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. This change ensures that penalties retain their deterrent effect by adjusting them annually based on changes in the Consumer Price Index.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Project Firstline offered a webinar on Tuesday focused on preventing and responding to respiratory infections and outbreaks in long-term care. During the webinar they covered approaches to recognizing illness early, testing, treatment, vaccination, and infection prevention and control (IPC).

Yesterday, Jan. 14, the U.S. State Department announced a pause on immigrant visa processing for applicants from 75 countries, a change that may affect some employment-based green card cases used by long-term care providers to recruit international health care professionals. The pause is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 21.

CMS has recently moved nursing home survey and certification data into its new cloud-based system, iQIES (Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System). While this modernization is intended to improve data quality and reliability, the transition has resulted in data discrepancies that may be visible on Nursing Home Care Compare.

Members who provide HUD subsidized housing may have received a letter dated November 25, 2025 from HUD Secretary E. Scott Turner addressing the current administration’s guidance related to criminal background screenings for prospective tenants.

The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act has been reintroduced – A federal bill that proposes to recapture up to 40,000 previously authorized but unused immigrant visas—25,000 for nurses and 15,000 for physicians.

LeadingAge Minnesota business partner CliftonLarsonAllen (CLA) recently released their 40^th Annual SNF Cost Comparison and Industry Trends Report. This year's report is centered on the importance of understanding the reimbursement landscape, how quality drives performance, and enhancing business operations and acumen.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently released a practical, evidence-based toolkit designed specifically for long‐term care organizations to reduce the risk of skin compromise and the spread of multidrug‐resistant organisms (MDROs). Because residents live in the same place where they receive care, the environment and resident interactions present unique prevention challenges.

The latest Nurse Professional Liability Claim Report: 5th Edition, released by CNA and the Nurses Service Organization (NSO), reveals a growing concern for those working in our settings. Over the past five years, nearly half of all closed nurse malpractice claims have involved professionals working in long-term care, assisted living, or home health settings.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has begun issuing the calendar year 2025 Resident Services Coordinator (RSC) grant award notices to renew grants for the current year.