News

The expedited Paid Feeding Assistant training allowed by CMS throughout the pandemic will end in June.

Last year, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) modified the minimum training requirement for Paid Feeding Assistants from eight hours to one hour under a waiver from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). In an April 7 Memorandum, CMS announced it will terminate the waiver on June 6.

A critical COVID-19 waiver allowing Basic Care Aids to serve seniors through the pandemic is expiring; caregivers must be on the Nursing Assistant Registry by Oct. 6.

In public comments filed last week, Argentum and LeadingAge urged the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) not to make the agency's Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for COVID-19 a permanent part of the regulatory landscape.

The latest LeadingAge quarterly survey of affordable housing providers shows lower COVID-19 cases among residents in senior housing communities across the country. However, the survey results also show higher rates of COVID-19 among staff and persistent challenges in hiring and retaining service coordinators and other staff.

Plastikon Healthcare, LLC is voluntarily recalling three lots of Milk of Magnesia 2400 mg/30 mL Oral Suspension, one lot of Acetaminophen 650mg/ 20.3mL, and six lots of Magnesium Hydroxide 1200mg/Aluminum Hydroxide 1200mg/Simethicone 120mg per 30 mL. 

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted updated interpretive guidance concerning the staff vaccination mandate, with a revision date of April 5. We encourage care centers to review QSO 22-07-ALL (Revised) and the changes to Attachment A.

This week, several members of LeadingAge Minnesota attended LeadingAge's annual Leadership Summit. In conjunction with the conference, LeadingAge facilitated meetings with our state delegation in Congress to discuss several policy priorities to ensure we have enough caregivers to provide safe, quality care for Minnesota's seniors.

HUD's NSPIRE Demonstration program, which will replace REAC's current physical inspection standards and protocol under the Uniform Physical Condition Standards (UPCS) for the HUD-assisted housing portfolio, is on track to complete over 900 advisory inspections by the end of May 2022. HUD inspectors will continue to work with approximately 4,500 volunteer properties to identify potential adjustments to NSPIRE standards, protocols, and processes, which will then be rolled out to the broader portfolio.

Periodically, CMS raises the Quality Measure (QM) ratings’ thresholds in the Five Star Quality Rating System to promote continuously quality improvement. CMS is implementing a new process for raising QM rating thresholds by increasing the threshold for the average rate of improvement in QM scores by 50% every six months. For example, if there is an average rate of improvement of 2%, the QM rating thresholds would be raised 1%.   

Project Firstline, led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), launched a new toolkit yesterday entitled Risk Recognition and Infection Control in Healthcare. As with other Project Firstline resources, the new toolkit aims to increase infection control knowledge and understanding among frontline staff.

The White House’s strategy to address the national mental health crisis, outlined on March 1 in a fact sheet and formally announced during President Biden's March 2 State of the Union speech, includes training HUD service coordinators, housing counselors, and fair housing grantee staff to be equipped to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness and addiction among those they serve. HUD will train staff in these roles to recognize the signs of emotional distress and connect residents with mental health resources.

With a goal of eliminating preventable harm in the course of caregiving, the LeadingAge Minnesota Safe Care initiative directly addresses the White House’s recent call for nursing homes to prevent resident harm and improve safety and quality.

Aging services communities looking to build a pipeline of foreign workers hired as trainees and specialists might be interested in hiring long-term care workers through the J-1 visa exchange visitor program.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued expanded guidance for the COVID-19 In-Person Visitation Aid Grants available to nursing homes.

HR 6530 was introduced in the US House of Representatives directly at Argentum’s request and includes two primary components. If passed, the legislation would create a $10 billion caregiver sustainability fund similar to the Provider Relief Fund (PRF) and establish $1.25 billion in federal grants for workforce development that would provide four-year grants of up to $1 million per entity.

CMS has issued a Second Edition Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP) COVID-19 Public Reporting Tip Sheet to help providers understand CMS' public reporting approach to the SNF QRP to account for CMS quality data submissions that were either optional or excepted from public reporting due to the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE).

As of Wednesday, Jan. 26, CMS is posting new information to the public-facing Care Compare website for nursing homes.

First, CMS has added data about the level of weekend RN staffing and total nurse staffing (e.g., RN, LPN, and CNA), reported in terms of the average number of RN and total nurse hours worked per resident per day on weekends. As presented, the data compares a specific facility’s weekend staffing to the national average and the Minnesota average.

Following billions of dollars in broadband investments approved by Congress in the fall of 2021, federal and state governments have begun making plans to distribute funds and increase connectivity, potentially for affordable housing communities.

This week LeadingAge and the American Health Care Association sent a joint letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recommending accommodations for skilled nursing facilities impacted by a ransomware attack that human resources company Ultimate Kronos Group faced on Dec. 10, 2021.

In late December, HUD opened renewal applications for existing Service Coordinator grants for Calendar Year 2022. Applications are due Feb. 7 and must include HUD's one-year budget form. The agency has applied a 5.9% Cost of Living Adjustment, higher than in previous years and falls in line with this year's Social Security benefits increase.