Online resource packed with regulatory news and expert guidance, tips & tools pertinent to professionals across the post-acute care continuum.
New York state nursing homes are under fire as reports surface stating that COVID-19 deaths may have been under-counted by 50%. A sample of 62 nursing homes showed that a substantial number of deaths were not included in the official death toll when the deaths occurred at hospitals after transfers, states NY Attorney General (AG) […]
After several months of battling the coronavirus in nursing homes, January 17 marked the fourth consecutive week of a decline in cases, new data from CMS shows. The week ending January 17 showed 17,584 confirmed COVID-19 cases in nursing homes throughout the country, down from 32,000 cases in the week ending December 20. This data […]
Nursing home residents could receive the COVID-19 vaccine as early as Christmas, said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on December 13. Azar remarked to CBS’ “Face the Nation,” that nearly all nursing homes in the country have signed up for the federal government’s program to distribute the vaccine. Walgreens expects to receive the […]
The OIG announced plans to investigate whether nursing homes are following proper protocol when discharging and evicting residents. The OIG found that discharges and evictions were the most common compliant submitted to the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program from 2011 to 2016. “Discharges which violate federal regulations are of great concern because in some cases they […]
CMS announced on November 17 that individuals from 7,313 nursing homes have completed the CMS COVID-19 training. This accounts for 12.5% of the approximately one million nursing home staff in the country. CMS is calling on all nursing homes to take action and require staff to complete this free training. “We’ve provided nursing homes with […]
Using federal data from twenty states, The Associated Press found that nursing homes had four times as many new COVID-19 cases in October than in May, rising from 1,083 cases to 4,274. Additionally, COVID-19 related deaths in among residents has more than doubled in that time, from 318 a week to 699 a week. While […]
More than 75% of eligible nursing homes who met infection control improvement benchmarks between August and September will split federal aid totaling $333M. This will be the first round of payments from the $2B fund meant to reward nursing homes with better resident outcomes than the surrounding communities during the coronavirus pandemic. In order to […]
Despite CMS recommendations to reopen nursing homes to visitors, New York state has taken a step back and reinstated restrictions to nursing homes and SNFs located in COVID-19 hotspots. In a four week period ending October 11, New York nursing homes reported 713 confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases, which is more than twice the number […]
A recent annual benchmark report found that SNF margins in FY 2019 remained at zero for the third year in a row. The report also found a correlation between a SNFs star rating and its operating margin. In 2019, SNFs with an overall stat rating of 1 or 2 had margins below zero, while facilities […]
The federal government announced plans on September 28 to send an 18 million rapid COVID-19 tests to nursing homes from Abbott Laboratories. The deployment of these tests comes after CMS updated the requirements for staff testing in late-August, requiring routine testing of staff based on community spread. In addition to the 18 million allotted for […]