Skilled Nursing Facility

AHA and AMA call for halt to pending Medicare spending cuts

Congress should prevent planned Medicare spending reductions triggered by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the American Medical Association (AMA) said in a March 17 statement. The reduction, which could be up to 4%, would be enacted under the statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) provision, which prevents new legislation from increasing the federal budget deficit. Congress …

Home Health

HHS extends public comment period for HIPAA Privacy Rule modifications

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on March 9 a 45-day extension for the public comment period for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to modify the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The NPRM was first published in the Federal Register on January 21. At the time, individuals had 60 days to submit their comments. The …

Featured Podcast

Compliance Tips for 2021

Industry expert Reg Hislop joins us to talk about top compliance issues for SNFs in 2021. Be sure to check out our deep dive into this topic on a May 11th webinar for Skilled Nursing Week.

Skilled Nursing Facility

Q&A: Job-specific HIPAA training

Q: As we look forward to 2021, we’re looking to utilize the most up-to-date HIPAA training strategies. I am responsible for training clinical and clerical staff annually. Do you have any recommendations for job-specific HIPAA training? A: HCPro and TeachPrivacy, among others, are solid training provider vendors. They work to keep their training accurate and …

Home Health

Some agencies are facing new payment issues related to the no-pay RAPs that began January 1, 2021. MACs Palmetto GBA and CGS, collectively responsible for claims in 31 states, have recently alerted agencies to a potential issue where Medicare’s system is sometimes not replacing the placeholder HIPPS code used to match RAPs and final claims. …

PPS Alert for Long-Term Care

Recognize and treat malnutrition and dehydration in residents

People who are sick or elderly have different food requirements than young, healthy people. They are also more likely to suffer harm from not eating the right foods. After age 50, there are chemical and physical changes in the body that affect nutritional needs.