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Friday, April 3, 2020

Best of Week

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Successfully Evaluate and Select Your EVV Vendor

Home care organizations across the country that provide Medicaid reimbursed personal care services are investing time and money into electronic visit verification (EVV) systems in order to comply with the federal mandate that goes into effect on January 1, 2020. A key component is evaluating and selecting the right vendor to partner with you through this transition.

Home Health

Memo outlines COVID-19 guidance, exception for hospice workers entering nursing homes

CMS has revised COVID-19 guidance for nursing homes that includes an exception for hospices workers. The memo allows hospice workers to access nursing homes and health care facilities to give patient care. The CMS memo states that “facilities should restrict visitation of all visitors and non-essential health care personnel, except for certain compassionate care situations, …

Skilled Nursing Facility

CMS issues unprecedented lineup of temporary regulatory waivers

In an attempt to provide healthcare providers with maximum flexibility when addressing COVID-19 concerns, CMS waived an unprecedented array of temporary regulatory waivers on March 30. The temporary waivers will last the duration of the emergency declaration put forth by the Trump administration, and include: Increased Hospital Capacity – CMS Hospitals Without Walls; Rapid expansion …

Featured Product

Monthly In-Service: March issue of CNA Training Advisor

Understand how to address bloodborne pathogens and practice standard precautions. Get the latest issue to receive a new lesson plan, including course materials, a 4-page in-service, and a quiz targeted to address the unique needs, interests, and concerns of CNAs.

Post-Acute

States to decide stimulus bill’s effect on unemployment taxes

The COVID-19 pandemic that has sent the nation’s unemployment rate soaring may eventually—at least in some cases—affect employers’ unemployment insurance tax rates. Just who will be affected, though, remains an open question. With businesses shutting down or significantly curtailing operations, Congress responded with the $2 trillion stimulus bill dubbed the CARES Act, which was signed …

Private Duty

Look into village opportunities for seniors and private duty agencies

The goal of helping seniors age in place is consistent with the mission of many private duty agencies and presents an opportunity for partnership. The village Osborne Home Care in Rye, N.Y. is a part of has looked at valued merchants and businesses to create a vetted list of services and providers in the area. Agencies …

PPS Alert for Long-Term Care

Emergency preparedness in the time of COVID-19

In the face of a global pandemic, SNFs across the country need to have a heightened awareness of emergency plans and how to execute them. One major point of COVID-19 transmission in the United States was at the Life Care Center, a SNF in Kirkland, Washington. The CDC later determined that in under three weeks from the first infected resident showing COVID-19 symptoms, more than a quarter of the facility’s residents had died