September 2015 36 9 Issue of McKnight's Long Term Care News
September 2015 edition of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
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News
NOTICE Act signed; deadline next August
The Notice of Observation, Treatment and Implication for Care Eligibility Act (NOTICE) will require hospitals to tell Medicare beneficiaries of their outpatient status within 36 ...
SNFs can ask for a 3-month reprieve in quality reporting
Skilled nursing facilities unable to provide data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' new quality reporting program will have a 90-day window to ...
Tool addresses LGBT residents
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a tool to help long-term care providers address the needs of older lesbian, gay, bisexual and ...
Antipsychotic use down 21.7%
Antipsychotic use in long-stay nursing homes has decreased 21.7% over the past four years, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Senator asks GAO for Five-Star assessment
Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) is calling for the government to investigate Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Five-Star Quality Rating System.
Meds are tied to weight loss
Cholinesterase inhibitors, commonly used to treat dementia, could cause older adults to lose a "harmful" amount of weight, new research suggests.
Study doubts 3-day waivers
Skilled nursing facility admissions don't increase when Medicare Advantage plans waive the three-day stay rule, new research asserts.
Administrator salaries rising
Nursing home administrators are averaging $119,197 in annual salary, nearly a 2.5% increase over last year, according to the "Nursing Home Salary & Benefits Report ...
Feds trim pay bump from prior estimate
The federal government announced it would reduce a proposed Medicare rate hike for next year. Skilled care operators will now see a $430 million increase ...
State News
State News for September 2015
MINNESOTA — Differences in the quality of life between white and minority nursing home residents are emerging as more people of color move into long-term ...
Features
Reducing errors
Experts warn that common MDS mistakes still plague many providers, threatening the bottom line and resident care. But software may hold the solution.
Lifting the spirits
With resident choice and person-centered care on the rise, some rules and procedures should remain non-negotiable when it comes to lifting, bathing processes
60 Seconds with...
60 Seconds with Alice Rivlin, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Medicare just turned 50. Some are asking: Will improving choice and competition in Medicare Advantage keep the program going until 2030?
Ask the care expert
Ask the Care Expert about ... readmissions
Access to veins can mean the difference between sending a resident back to the hospital and keeping him/her in the facility. Sending residents back to ...
Resident care
For most seniors, diabetes is uncontrolled
Only about 30% of older Americans have control over their diabetes, the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found.
Pain driving many back into hospital, CMS study shows
About 23% of skilled nursing patients return to the hospital within 30 days of discharge due to moderate or severe pain, a recent study from ...
Wound care
Ultrasound accelerating wound healing
Low-intensity ultrasound can reduce healing times for diabetic ulcers, bedsores and other chronic wounds by a third, researchers have found.
Ask the nursing expert
Ask the Nursing Expert... about preventing burnout
Our nursing home has been really short of nurses, so we've all been working a lot of overtime. How do we prevent burnout?
Nursing
Nurses support bill targeting healthcare worker violence
A state bill in Massachusetts geared toward preventing healthcare workplace violence has garnered support from nursing advocates.
Health workers show LGBT bias: study
Healthcare workers may be biased regarding the sexual orientation of their patients, according to researchers from the University of Washington.
Payment & policy
Net gain for rural operators
Skilled nursing facilities would become eligible for broadband services funding under a proposed Senate bill.
Medicaid termination doesn't always cross state lines: OIG
Twelve percent of providers terminated from a state Medicaid program continued participating in other states, a new government study has found.
Ask the Payment Expert about ... expedited review
The expedited review process was developed so a resident could quickly appeal the process if he or she disagreed when a facility decided that a ...
Ask the legal expert
Ask the Legal Expert... about relationships between residents
Family members are threatening to sue because their mother is carrying on a believed-to-be-sexual relationship with a gentleman who also lives at our facility. What's ...
Legal Matters
Prohibit binding arbitration entirely? CMS was tempted
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is toughening its stance on the use of binding arbitration agreements for nursing home residents and their families. ...
Suit targeting 'ambush' elections rejected
A U.S. district court has dismissed a lawsuit aimed at overturning a National Labor Relations Board rule that could speed up union elections.
Design
Design Decisions: Letter-perfect renovation
Presbyterian Senior Living looked to the alphabet — specifically the letter C — when putting together its $10 million St. Andrew's Village continuing care retirement ...
How to do it…
How to do it... EMR and billing integration
Over the years, providers have tried every trick in the book to get electronic medical records and billing systems to mesh. This is not a ...
A day in the life
'Birdman' flies in Fairfax
The Fairfax, a Sunrise Senior Living military community, was named the first senior community certified as a wildlife sanctuary last October, thanks to resident and ...
Technology
3-D technology may hasten denture sizing for residents
A new device that uses holography to scan the insides of patients' mouths decreases the time needed to measure for dentures from days down to ...
I Couldn't Live Without ... American HealthTech
With long-term care's need for automation growing, JMS Senior Living CEO Ben Scheulen thought it was time to update his company's paper-based system. It invested ...
Opinion
Reader Poll: What is your biggest technology-related challenge?
Answers compiled during the Long-Term and Post-Acute Care (LTPAC) Health IT Summit in Baltimore.
Zen gardening for LTC
Here's my naïve and rather radical gardening philosophy — it should be an act of joy, not stress or fear. But another striving human I ...
Company news
Granite acquires $90 million portfolio of newer buildings
Granite Investment Group acquired a $90.1 million portfolio of five South Texas skilled nursing facilities in mid-July. The acquisition, which was completed through two off-market ...
Extendicare closes sale
Extendicare closed the $870 million sale of its United States facilities to an investor group led by private equity firm Formation Capital LLC.
Vendor news
Swallowing product is all the talk during industry contest
New speech therapy options could help long-term care residents struggling with swallowing or aphasia.
CAST expands latest telehealth matrix
More than 28 different telehealth products are included in the Center for Aging Services Technologies' updated selection portfolio, including six new products.
Business & Marketing
Focus on long-stay rates
By now, everyone has heard the resounding drumbeat of 30-day rehospitalization rates. What is yours? Are you improving? Are you using the National Quality Forum's ...
Editor’s desk
Talking about death — without the tomfoolery
The lessons keep flowing from the political debacle that has been Sarah Palin's political career. You'll recall it was Palin who launched the irresponsible phrase ...
Profile
Profile: Tom Coble
At the end of February 1993, Tom Coble was working on offshore natural gas delivery in the Gulf of Mexico. By March 1, he was ...
