News

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a new State Medicaid Director Letter titled 10 Opportunities to Better Serve Individuals Dually Eligible for Medicaid and Medicare. 

More home health agencies (HHAs) than skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) have adopted electronic health records (EHRs), according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). 

The federal government remains in a partial shutdown, which could impact affordable housing as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is one of the federal funding bills in limbo. It is unclear at the time we distributed this newsletter how long the shutdown will last. This articles provides some details on what a shutdown means for affordable housing funding, plus an update on a new hemp law and funding for Alzheimer's education. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking comments on draft guidance intended to streamline the use of electronic health records (EHRs) and other health information technology (IT). Comments are due Jan. 28.  

A 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) approved in October will begin with benefits payable to more than 62 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2019. 

LeadingAge national has submitted comments to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expressing opposition to its proposed rule broadening the factors used in public charge determinations, meaning whether a legal immigrant would become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence.   

LeadingAge national has submitted comments to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expressing opposition to its proposed rule broadening the factors used in public charge determinations, meaning whether a legal immigrant would become primarily dependent on the government for subsistence.   

Two new reports shed more light on how Medicare Advantage Organizations (MAOs) evaluated offering the new benefits for 2019 Medicare Advantage plans. The conclusion? Few plans – only 102 – are testing the new benefits in 2019, with more looking to offer some new Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) in 2020. The report also note that challenges remain. 

Nursing Home Compare has a whole new look after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) added five of six Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Reporting Program (QRP) measures to the site on Nov. 28. While the measures are listed under the Quality of Resident Care tab with the other measures of short-stay quality, they are not used to calculate a Skilled Nursing Facility’s Quality star rating. The newly reported measures include:                 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released individual Skilled Nursing Facilities results from the first year of Value-Based Purchasing (VBP). Under VPB, rates are adjusted based on Skilled Nursing Facility-specific hospital readmission rates. 

The personal needs allowance for nursing facility residents is increased annually by the social security COLA. In the coming year, social security benefits will increase by 2.8 percent, so the personal needs allowance will increase from $99 this year to $102 for the year starting Jan. 1, 2019.  

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will provide information on the Patient Driven Payment Model, the recently-released Nursing Home Staff Competency Assessment toolkit, and other issues during a Skilled Nursing Facilities/Long Term Care Open Door Forum onThursday, Nov. 29, at 1 p.m. 

A recently introduced bill in Congress would extend soon-to-expire federal spousal impoverishment protections for spouses of people receiving Medicaid home and community-based services.   

LeadingAge has filed comments in support of the U.S. Department of Labor's proposal to eliminate restrictions on the operation of patient lifts by nursing home employees under the age of 18. 

In a recent call with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), LeadingAge learned that there has been a 2 percent increase in the utilization of Adult Day Services by veterans in recent years, compared to 17 percent growth in other services. To turn this around, the VA expects to roll out several initiatives to boost Adult Day Services options for veterans that include: 

The ACTION Campaign’s state fact sheets have been updated with the most recent data to show the Housing Credit’s impact and the affordable housing needs that remain in every state. New to the state fact sheets this year is data demonstrating the impact that a 50 percent increase in the Housing Credit would have in each state. 

The Lame Duck Session is underway! We need members who serve seniors in affordable housing to contact our congressional delegation this week to ensure that a final fiscal year 2019 HUD appropriations bill is enacted. 

The midterm election brought some big changes for members of Congress with jurisdiction over aging services issues, as well as a fresh outlook on what may be accomplished in the upcoming lame duck session and in the new Congress that will convene in January. 

After the RAI manual updates were released for October 2018, an errata document was posted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website concerning J2000: Prior Surgery. In the Coding Tips on page J-35, there were three criteria for a procedure to be classified as major surgery and now there are only two criteria:   

Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Provider Preview Reports are now available for review prior to the January 2019 public display of the performance data on the Nursing Home Compare site. Corrections to the underlying data are not permitted, but providers can request a CMS review if they believe their data scores are being displayed inaccurately. Requests for review must be made by Nov. 30.