James M. Berklan

What a week for New Jersey. It started with the pro football team that has its roots there winning the Super Bowl, and it's going to end with a first-in-the-nation effort by the state's assisted living providers.

With warmer days of spring around the corner, now is the perfect time to hunker down and get your professional affairs in order. I have a solution that involves no paperwork or heavy lifting.

Skilled nursing operators, apparently overwhelmed or defiant, have not been completing resident interviews as mandated by the new MDS 3.0 resident assessment tool, a top official with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said last month.

Authors of a new report recommend creating an integrated care model for dual-eligible Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. The result would be better coordinated care, and at a lower cost, they say.

A firestorm of commentary broke out last month upon news that New York lawmakers might soon again debate a bill that would require registered nurses to attain a four-year bachelor's degree.

All we wanted was a nugget, a morsel, a few bread crumbs maybe. And this is what we got instead? Lord, help us.

I believe there are good news stories around us all the time. Our eyes, and brains, often are just too conditioned and look past them. It's human nature. Consider this small-town long-term care story that earned scant attention, even in the local press.

Long-term care operators have produced a variety of clever, attractive calendars through the years. The illustrations have even shown simulated naked poses, with strategic signage saving the viewer from the "Full Monty" experience.

Sometimes long-term care nurses feel like step-sisters to their acute-care counterparts. Face it: Hospital nurses usually get the glory.

It's no wonder long-term care providers prefer residents whose care is reimbursed by something other than Medicaid: The federal-state program was expected to underfund care by an average of nearly $20 per beneficiary day in 2011, according to a new analysis.