The second round of the Health Care Innovation Awards is now underway, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Wednesday. CMS will distribute up to $1 billion to fund projects that aim to improve care while cutting costs for the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
May 03, 2013
For most operators, owners and CFOs in long-term care facilities, control is not a word that comes to mind when insurance is the topic. But with price increases hitting commercial insurance lines, market and coverage limitations within the aging services sector, as well as reduced capacity to service this vertical, greater control is exactly what long-term care executives should demand.
Long-term care providers have been able to sustain modest room-rate hikes, according to the 10th annual Cost of Care Survey from insurance company Genworth.
The number of people dying in hospitals decreased 8% from 2000 to 2010 even as overall hospitalizations rose, suggesting nursing homes, hospices and home health providers are playing larger roles in end-of-life care. These numbers appeared in a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.
May 01, 2013
There has been a trend of late to refer to specialized care of individuals with dementia as "memory care." I understand the need for a quick, catchy title for a new product or service line in long-term care, but I worry about the message this one may send and the mindset it might create in management, families and employees. Here's why.
The Department of Health and Human Services has updated its national standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS), providing an enhanced tool for long-term care providers serving increasingly diverse populations.
April 25, 2013
Americans don't like to think about their eventual long-term care needs and don't have a realistic understanding of how the long-term care system works, according to a poll released Wednesday. Given that other surveys have reported similar findings for years, the results show the public's consistent lack of knowledge about long-term care.
April 25, 2013
Behold, readers: There's a new work of literary fiction that takes place in a long-term care facility.
April 22, 2013
You know the music you love personally, and how listening to a certain song makes you feel. But how can you tap the power of music to simultaneously enhance the lives of the many people in your and your team's care?
April 19, 2013
Long-term care providers and states should agree on what a "direct access employee" is and whether that person has a criminal conviction that should keep him or her from working in a nursing home, according to a a recently released report from the Long-Term Care Criminal Convictions Work Group.
April 18, 2013
Long-term care providers who self-disclose potential Medicare and Medicaid fraud will likely benefit from lower repayment amounts, according to updated guidance released Wednesday. It is the first time HHS has explicitly acknowledged systematically imposing lower penalties for self-reported fraud.
A high-profile long-term care quality group has begun search plans for another new executive director, just six months after filling the position previously.
April 11, 2013
The White House's proposed budget includes $81 billion in Medicare payment reductions to long-term care providers. The reductions would take place over 10 years, as part of the Obama administration's plan to reduce healthcare spending by $400 billion.
April 10, 2013
The cost of long-term care continues to rise, according to the 10th annual Cost of Care Survey from insurance company Genworth. The median annual cost of a private nursing home room reached $83,950 this year, up 3.6% from 2012, the report showed.
April 02, 2013
The 2% reduction in Medicare payments known as sequestration began Monday. Providers should begin to see the impact by mid-April. The reductions will affect claims with dates of service or discharge on or after April 1, 2013.
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April 01, 2013
A four-person review panel would have to approve civil malpractice lawsuits against long-term care providers before the claims could go to court, under a bill that recently passed the state senate in Kentucky.
April 01, 2013
Q: What are the top issues the Long-Term Care Commission needs to address? A: We need to address the knowledge deficits that exist in the general public about long-term care needs. And we need a new set of tools that helps people better prepare as they age.
April 01, 2013
There are plenty of legal concerns that keep nursing home administrators awake at night. Many times, the demons can be kept under the bed or locked in the closet. But not always.
Nursing homes using antipsychotic drugs for dementia care can and should take most residents off these medications, according to recently published research.
By testing for particular molecules in cerebrospinal fluid, doctors can identify who is most likely to need long-term care following a subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) stroke, according to researchers.
March 21, 2013
When I recently went to a nursing home as a visitor, watching a well-choreographed "team" working together gave me a much different appreciation for the long-term care facility and the people who work there. They truly care for their residents as if they were their own family members.
The country's long-term care financing system for consumers must be revamped within five years to meet the needs of aging baby boomers, according to The SCAN Foundation. In eight reports released Wednesday, the organization laid out policy recommendations for taking pressure off government programs while increasing the availability and affordability of long-term care financing for consumers.
March 19, 2013
The best "prime" opportunity for long-term care professionals to learn the latest information about many of the top issues in long-term care is at hand. Prime? Two days. Five free webcasts. Seven years running for the annual McKnight's Online Expo. Appropriately, there are a lot of prime numbers associated with this year's event, which already has shattered all previous registration record.
The Food and Drug Administration is investigating a possible link between commonly prescribed diabetes drugs and pancreatic cancer. The drugs, including Januvia and Byetta, were previously connected with fatal cases of pancreatic inflammation known as pancreatitis.
March 15, 2013
Alzheimer's disease is very good at taking. It takes away memories. It takes away personalities. It can be argued that Alzheimer's essentially takes away a person's essence. And as almost anyone who has spent time in a senior living facility can tell you, it can also take away sexual inhibitions.
President Barack Obama has named the final three members of the Commission on Long-Term Care created as part of January's fiscal cliff deal.
An antibiotic-resistant strain of Escherichia coli (E. coli) is on the rise in long-term care facilities, according to a study in the April issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
Long-term care operators and other healthcare providers are having limited success in combating Clostridium difficile infections, despite increasing their efforts in the last three years, according to recently released survey results.
March 11, 2013
The House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee should hold hearings on deadly, antibiotic-resistant bacteria on the rise, according to a March 7 letter from lawmakers.
March 08, 2013
Long-term care is one of seven employment sectors likely to see significant challenges based on health benefits requirements in the Affordable Care Act, according to payroll services provider ADP.
