TIP: What providers can be doing to prepare for RCS-1

The Summary of Advance Notice published back in April announcing potential options for revising certain aspects of the SNF PPS payment method places significant importance on clinical categories and resident characteristics documented within the MDS. This new model, RCS-1, would replace RUG-IV, if approved. This change is expected to happen by January 2019, pending public comment review, revisions, and official implementation.

CMS announces new Medicaid policy to combat the opioid crisis by increasing access to treatment options

Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new policy to allow states to design demonstration projects that increase access to treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) and other substance use disorders (SUD). CMS’s new demonstration policy responds to the President’s directive and provides states with greater flexibility to design programs that improve access to high quality, clinically appropriate treatment. In addition, CMS is announcing the immediate approval of both New Jersey and Utah’s demonstration waivers under the new policy.

The transition to a unified payment system for PAC facilities could start as early as 2019, suggests MedPAC

In response to a Congressional mandate, in 2016 The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommended design features of a unified payment system, the post-acute-care (PAC) prospective payment system (PPS), to pay for services in the four post-acute care settings (home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and long-term care hospitals). In a meeting held last Thursday, Commissioner Carol Carter discussed how the PAC PPS design could “increase the equity of payments within each post-acute-care setting.”

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CMS Administrator Verma announces new initiatives for Medicaid to give states more freedom

Yesterday, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma discussed her vision for the future of Medicaid and unveiled new CMS policies that encourage states to propose innovative Medicaid reforms, reduce federal regulatory burdens, increase efficiency, and promote transparency and accountability during a plenary session at the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) Fall Conference in Arlington, Virginia.

Ask the expert: Why is it recommended that facilities remove alarms in phases, rather than cold turkey?

Q: Why is it recommended that facilities remove alarms in phases, rather than cold turkey? Won't family members and residents wonder why one unit can have the alarms and another unit cannot?

Northern California wildfires: Disaster exceptions/exemptions for Medicare certified providers

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is granting exceptions under certain Medicare quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs to acute care hospitals, inpatient psychiatric facilities, skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, hospices, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals, renal dialysis facilities, and ambulatory surgical centers located in areas affected by the devastating impacts of the Northern California wildfires since October 8, 2017, in and around counties in Northern California.

Home health quality reporting program final rule published

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the Home Health Quality Reporting Program Final Rule.

Hospice item set data freeze date: November 15