Online resource packed with regulatory news and expert guidance, tips & tools pertinent to professionals across the post-acute care continuum.
On August 12, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law substantial and far-reaching amendments to the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL), the state statute that prohibits discrimination and discriminatory harassment. The amendments amplify laws that New York state enacted in 2018 to combat sexual harassment. Here are important facts about the amendments […]
Turnover for private duty caregivers is an ongoing challenge in the industry, and it’s only getting worse. In 2018 the turnover rate increased to 81.6%, according to the spring edition of the 2019 Home Care Benchmarking Study by Home Care Pulse of Rexburg, Idaho. That’s up from 66.7% in 2017. Consider the following tips to […]
The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) penned a letter to CMS administrator Seema Verma in response to a tweet she published earlier in August. The tweet addressed the three-day rule, stating that a SNF resident must first spend three days as a hospital inpatient to be eligible for Medicare […]
CMS to hold open door forum about new Medicare cards CMS will be hosting an open-door forum on September 11 to discuss the status of new Medicare cards and Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers (MBI). Beginning January 2020, Medicare will only accept claims submitted with MBIs. The updated cards are designed to offer better identity protection by […]
CMS has released post-training materials, including a Q&A document, following a recent webinar entitled “Achieving a Full Annual Payment Update (APU)/Market Basket Increase.” During the webinar, CMS discussed: The relationship between the APU and quality reporting Data submission requirements. The reconsideration process for providers identified as noncompliant. Related links: View a video recording of the […]
Agencies have about four months to ensure they submit all claims using new Medicare beneficiary identifiers (MBIs). Providers will be required to use those MBIs on claims beginning Jan. 1, 2020. CMS completed all seven waves of its mailings earlier this year, and the push to transition to the new MBIs is ongoing. The federal […]
Payment rates for hospice care, the hospice cap amount, and the hospice wage index updates finalized in the 2020 hospice payment rule will take effect Oct. 1, and CMS has released a transmittal and MLN matters article on the changes. CMS finalized rate increases for continuous home care, general inpatient care and inpatient respite care. […]
CMS recently released the updated SNF Provider Preview Reports. Based on quality data submitted by SNFs, the reports include assessment-based quality measures recorded between Q1 2018 and Q4 2018 and claims-based quality measures recorded between Q4 2016 and Q3 2018. SNFs have the opportunity to review their performance data until September 16. While corrections to […]
CMS announced on August 22 that it incorrectly calculated baseline performance rates for the SNF Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) initiative, according to a report from LeadingAge. The first results published in fall 2018 showed that 73% of SNFs lost money under VBP, and only 27% received money back from Medicare. However. these results are no longer […]
The American Health Care Association (AHCA) and National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) recently awarded four SNFs and one assisted living community their highest accolade, the Gold Quality Award. For SNFs to be considered for this award, they must “have invested multiple years in mastering and applying the rigorous quality improvement standards of the Baldrige […]