This message is specific to skilled nursing facilities. As discussed at the Community Collaborative last week, Genesis will be revising the list of providers given to patients and families who will be selecting a skilled nursing facility for their post acute care.  One of the key quality points communicated to consumers will  be the presence of 24/7 RN staffing in area facilities.  As we discussed and agreed upon on Wednesday morning, the easiest and most accurate way for us to…..

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According to McKnight news and I quote: “As you may know, Puerto Rico now finds itself in a deep financial crisis. How bad is it? Well, let’s just say Illinois looks fiscally responsible by comparison. Yeah, it’s that bad.” “For after many years of spending far more than it could ever hope to pay back, Puerto Rico is now officially insolvent. To help dig out, the island’s lawmakers turned to Congress for help. Federal lawmakers responded by passing a law…..

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Care providers spend more than half of their time at work doing tasks that do not involve resident care, indicating long-term care can become more efficient by delegating certain activities to non-regulated workers, according to new research. Seven Canadian nursing home sites were observed for two months, for the study, which was published June 6 in the online version of the Journal of Nursing Studies. Registered nurses, LPNs and resident aides were observed to gauge how much time they spent…..

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Blogger comment: Consistently legislation of how much staff is enough continues to be on the agenda of the lawmakers and hopefully they will let it lie until we have a better measurement efficiency, acuity and effective management tools including point of service software systems. Staffing for medical, psychological, social and emotional problems is the challenge since the needs are different for each case and episode. So to dictate staffing on a Per Patient Day is insane … or how many…..

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Narrow networks are designed to keep costs down through careful selection of providers using various criteria (some pertaining to quality) for who is allowed membership in the network. In the post-acute care arena, these membership criteria often derive from public data. There are limitations to the public data (think Five-Star Ratings, but I could go on). The Five-Star nursing home system recently underwent major revisions, adding additional quality metrics and rebasing the system, resulting in Five-Star scores that cannot be…..

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Gary I don’t always agree with your articles … but this one is exceptional.  It captures why politics have become a platform for egos not problem solving.  Ted Cruz isn’t my choice anyway.  His walking around a group of wheelchair occupants rather then talking to them, is further proof of the talking heads and candidates not wanting to answer questions only debate issues (difference of opinion) with the opposition not deal with problems to which they would have to present a solution of “how…..

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ICD means International Classification of Diseases … aha the physicians diagnosis codes … ICD-10 for better surveillance wow isn’t that exciting. The change to ICD-10 allows the Government to capture more details about the health status of patients and sets the stage for limiting patient care and public health surveillance across our country. ICD-10 will help move the nation’s health care system backwards, with more paperwork not better people work. Blogger comment: The only thing positive about ICD-10 is it makes work for…..

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A bill changing notification of outpatient observation status for hospital patients has been signed into law by President Obama. The Notice of Observation, Treatment and Implication for Care Eligibility Act will require hospitals to tell Medicare beneficiaries of their outpatient status within 36 hours, or, if sooner, upon discharge. The time spent in observation status can affect patients’ eligibility for Medicare post-acute care coverage. Hospitals will have until August 2016 to comply with the new law. The NOTICE Act passed…..

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Share this article: The government will continue ramped-up efforts against healthcare fraud cases that involve program exclusions and civil monetary penalties, officials shared on Monday. The Office of Inspector General increased the number of CMP-related fraud cases investigated during the past fiscal year, OIG Chief Counsel Gregory Demske said during a talk for the Health Care Compliance Association. The OIG resolved 110 exclusion and CMP fraud cases in the past year, Demske said. Demske predicted the trend will continue, especially…..

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eeNEW YORK, Jan. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) agreed to pay the owners of the Beechwood Nursing Home, located in Rochester, New York, $25 Million dollars to settle litigation in which a federal jury determined that NYSDOH officials, in a context of malfeasant comportment, had illegally revoked the operating license of the facility in 1999, in retaliation against its owners, resulting in Beechwood’s closure. Dr. Gerard Sunnen, a New York psychiatrist, is a member of a growing group…..

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