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LeadingAge National Advocates for Members on CMS Vaccination Rule
On July 14, 2021 by Jonathan Lips
On behalf of members across the country, the LeadingAge national team has submitted comments to CMS on the recently-issued rule requiring nursing homes to offer COVID-19 vaccine to residents and staff, to educate residents and staff regarding the benefits and potential side effects of the vaccine, and to report COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutics treatment information to NSHN.
Identifiers Indicating Vaccination Status
On May 12, 2021 by Kari Everson
The change in guidance allowing for increased flexibility with PPE, visitation, and testing based upon vaccination status prompted questions regarding how to quickly identify the vaccination status of residents, staff, and visitors. Many long-term care organizations discussed using bracelets, different name tags, stickers or other means of readily identifying an individual’s vaccination status.
Executive Order Removes Conflict with CDC and CMS Guidance for Long-Term Care Settings
On May 12, 2021 by Kari Everson
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published updated infection prevention and control recommendations in response to COVID-19 vaccinations, QSO 20-38, and QSO 20-39 at the end of April. Immediately after these guidance documents were posted, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) directed nursing homes to pause before following the staff PPE and dining and activities portions of the recommendations due to potential conflicts with Gov. Walz's executive order.
New CMS Rule Sets COVID Vaccine Requirements for Nursing Facilities
On May 12, 2021 by Jonathan Lips
On May 11, CMS announced an interim final rule establishing new requirements for nursing facilities. The rule requires care centers to offer COVID-19 vaccine to residents and staff, to educate residents and staff regarding the benefits and potential side effects of the vaccine, and to report COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutics treatment information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).
Expanded Emergency Preparedness Guidelines for Long-Term Care Facilities
On April 28, 2021 by Jonathan Lips
As we reported earlier this month, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued memorandum QSO-21-15-ALL providing updated guidance (Appendix Z) for all providers covered by the federal Emergency Preparedness requirements.
CDC, CMS Publish Updated Guidance for Healthcare IP&C in Response to COVID Vaccinations
On April 28, 2021 by Kari Everson
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published updated infection prevention and control recommendations in response to COVID-19 vaccinations yesterday. Following closely behind the CDC, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published two revised memos yesterday as well: QSO 20-38 and QSO 20-39. The QSO memos are revised with the recent CDC guidance updates.
CMS Releases Proposed Rule that Updates SNF Rates
On April 14, 2021 by Jeff Bostic
Late last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an annual Proposed Rule that updates the SNF PPS rates effective October 1, 2021. CMS will follow up with a final rule on the October 1 rates around August 1.
CMS Expands Emergency Preparedness Interpretive Guidelines
On April 14, 2021 by Jonathan Lips
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued memorandum QSO-21-15-ALL providing updated guidance (Appendix Z) for all providers covered by the federal Emergency Preparedness requirements. CMS is currently working on updates to the Emergency Preparedness Basic Surveyor Training Course to reflect the new changes.
CMS Ends Four Blanket Waivers and Clarifies Nursing Assistant Issue
On April 14, 2021 by Jonathan Lips
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a policy memo on April 8, announcing the termination of several 1135 waivers related to resident transfers, care plans, and assessments. CMS believes that facilities should have developed processes to comply with the standard regulatory requirements relating to these practices at this stage in the pandemic. These specific waivers, implemented because of the COVID-19 public health emergency, will end on May 10.
OIG Finds Shortcomings in CMS Use of Nursing Home Staffing Data
On March 17, 2021 by Jonathan Lips
In response to an evaluation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG), CMS stated last week that it will continue working to publicly report on nurse staff turnover and tenure, as required by federal law.
LeadingAge Continuing to Provide Five-Star Analysis Reports
On February 10, 2021 by Jeff Bostic
Earlier today, LeadingAge sent all care center members Five-Star Analysis reports that reflect updates to the data implemented by CMS a couple weeks ago. For more details on the scoring updates, go to this recent Advantage story that covers the changes in depth.
CMS Releases Updated Five Star Quality Ratings for Care Centers
On January 27, 2021 by Jonathan Lips
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) today released updated Five-Star quality ratings for care centers. Beginning with this month’s update, all three domains (Survey, Staffing, and Quality) will again operate as they did prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. All care centers should review the new ratings posted at Medicare Care Compare. As described in this revised Technical Users’ Guide, updates to the specific domains are as follows:
CMS Quality Measures and MDS Web-Based Trainings Available
On January 20, 2021 by Julie Apold
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced the following new quality and Minimum Data Set (MDS) web-based training content for skilled nursing facilities and Medicare home health providers:
New Criteria Should Reduce Number of Infection Control Surveys for Nursing Homes
On January 6, 2021 by Jonathan Lips
CMS issued a revised memo QSO-20-31-ALL-REVISED on Jan. 4 detailing new triggers for focused infection control (FIC) surveys. In addition to the two triggers previously identified, CMS has added 5 additional scenarios that will be used to help state survey agencies more narrowly target FIC surveys. The new criteria are effective immediately and will have the effect of reducing the volume of FIC surveys for many providers.
CMS Announces Updates to Five Star Quality Rating System
On December 9, 2020 by Jonathan Lips
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced (QSO-21-06-NH) on December 4 that the Five Star Quality Rating system will resume all updates with the January 2021 refresh. Due to the public health emergency (PHE) first issued in March 2020, the 3 domains of the rating system had previously been held constant at varying times throughout the past 9 months as a result of changes to health inspections and certain temporary regulatory waivers. During this time, CMS also unveiled the new Care Compare site, which officially replaced all legacy sites, including Nursing Home Compare, on December 1, 2020. Complete updates to the Five Star Quality Rating system will be available at the new Care Compare site on January 27, 2021.
CMS “Care Compare” Website Now Fully Rooted
On November 18, 2020 by Jonathan Lips
In early September the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched Care Compare, a streamlined redesign of eight existing CMS healthcare compare tools. The goal of this work was to allow consumers to access Nursing Home Compare, Hospice Compare, Home Health Compare, etc. all in the same location.
CMS Urges Nursing Homes to Use COVID-19 Staff Training
On November 18, 2020 by Jonathan Lips
In a Nov. 17 news release CMS urges nursing homes to take advantage of targeted COVID-19 training and highlights facilities that have already done so. This is the free course available on QSEP that offers modules for both front-line staff and management staff (access training here); it is separate from the longer QIO training offerings and from Project ECHO.
Latest Five-Star Analysis Reports Sent to Care Centers This Week
On November 4, 2020 by Jeff Bostic
LeadingAge sent all care center members their Five-Star Analysis reports this week. The pandemic has taken a toll on the collection and reporting of quality data, so while the staffing data is relatively new, the data on inspections and quality measures is from many months ago. We will continue to provide these reports regularly and expect CMS to be updating the data more regularly soon.
CMS Memo Addresses Emergency Preparedness Exercises
On October 7, 2020 by Jonathan Lips
Under CMS emergency preparedness regulations, nursing facilities are required to conduct two emergency preparedness testing exercises annually.
MDH, Providers Weigh Impact of CMS Revised Visitation Guidance
On September 23, 2020 by Jonathan Lips
In recognition of the physical and emotional toll that separation from family and other loved ones has taken on residents, CMS has issued