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MDS 3.0

Increasing length-of-stay

Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L January 30, 2012

Length-of-stay — LOS — is one of those management reports that often leaves administrators and upper management bewildered. If you increase LOS, you essentially increase your census.

Let's change 'Activity Director' to 'Chief Experience Officer'

Anthony Cirillo November 29, 2011

Back in Philadelphia, I was a hospital executive who moonlighted as a musician and singer in bands, casinos and nightclubs. When I tired of the band scene, I was looking for an outlet for my musical talents and that is when I discovered performing in long-term care facilities, something I do to this day.

How to avoid end-of-therapy pitfalls

Shelly Mesure, MS, OTR/L October 28, 2011

You are not required to offer therapy services on weekends under new MDS 3.0 changes instituted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. But you do have to be careful if you don't.

MDS 3.0 completion times are up, job satisfaction is down, survey shows

October 25, 2011

Overall job satisfaction has dropped among long-term care workers, and MDS 3.0 assessments are taking longer to complete than MDS 2.0, results of a new survey reveal.

CMS to disseminate more info about MDS 3.0, other issues and address questions in conference call

October 06, 2011

Officials with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will be hosting a monthly Skilled Nursing/LTC Open Door Forum a week from Thursday (Oct. 20) — not on Oct. 13, as originally announced. It promises to be anything but a run-of-the-mill provider conference call.

MDS 3.0 webcast: The first week with changes ... what do we do now?

October 06, 2011

Nursing home administrators must be absolutely certain their billing department staff and MDS coordinators are up to speed on the newly implemented PPS rules for therapy. That is one of the central messages that came through at a special McKnight's webcast Oct. 5 that focused on changes to MDS 3.0 and nursing home payment systems. A rebroadcast of the extremely popular hourlong session is attainable in the mcknights.com archive. Interested individuals simply must re-enter the sign-in environment or complete the free registration for the first time.

Providers must be compliant with new nursing home payment rules or face rejection of claims, expert says

October 06, 2011

Nursing home administrators must be absolutely certain their billing department staff and MDS coordinators are up to speed on the newly implemented PPS rules for therapy, MDS expert Leah Klusch said Wednesday during a special McKnight's webcast.

A time for pride to take over for nursing homes

James M. Berklan September 30, 2011

If you're a long-term care provider reading this in the waning hours before fiscal 2012 hits, be strong. If you're reading this after Saturday, Oct. 1, stand tall.

Nursing home operators anxious as new assessment, reimbursement changes take hold

September 29, 2011

Saturday marks the much-awaited — if not eagerly anticipated — Oct. 1 start date for a sweeping new set of changes to the MDS 3.0 resident assessment tool. Nursing home operators believe this could be the start of a new era of austerity. Among other challenges: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is enacting changes to reclaim billions of dollars in "overpayments" made over the last 12 months. Federal regulators have released hundreds of changes to the operations manual during the last several weeks alone. Experts caution that coding during the first transition month, which begins tomorrow, must be spot-on in order to avert missed payments, penalties or both.

Nursing homes must be on top of MDS changes, expert says

September 14, 2011

Nursing home operators need to make sure their MDS coordinators are paying close attention to the changes to the prospective payment system, an expert said yesterday during the last 2011 McKnight's Super Tuesday webinar.

Final Super Tuesday webinar on MDS 3.0 to be held tomorrow

September 12, 2011

Is your facility scrambling to stay on top of possible Medicare changes with MDS 3.0? Let McKnights' last 2011 Super Tuesday webinar, "Keeping pace with the MDS 3.0," get you up to speed.

Another CMS conference call will absorb overflow of popular MDS 3.0 update session

August 25, 2011

Overwhelmed by the initial outpouring of long-term care providers wanting to learn more about pending changes to the MDS 3.0 system, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host an additional conference call on the subject Thursday. The initial 7,000 telephone lines set up by the government for its Aug. 23 call were quickly snapped up, locking many out. Changes go into effect for fiscal 2012, which begins Oct. 1 this year.

CMS to repeat MDS 3.0 training conference call

August 25, 2011

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have announced that it will host an additional conference call on Sept. 1 about policy changes to MDS 3.0 for 2012.

CMS adds additional training session call on payment changes

August 22, 2011

Due to overwhelming interest from skilled nursing facility operators, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has added a training conference call on changes related to MDS 3.0 on Sept. 1.

Blockbuster provider call Tuesday on 11.1% Medicare payment cut, MDS 3.0 changes

August 18, 2011

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a national provider call Tuesday on skilled nursing facility payment changes for 2012 based on the new MDS 3.0 assessment system. Officials have called for an average 11.1% payment cut to providers, causing an uproar in the long-term care community. A huge audience at this government-sponsored call is all but ensured. Pre-registration is necessary by Monday. EDITOR'S NOTE: This session has been filled; federal officials will be coming out shortly with details about another opportunity the afternoon of Sept. 1.

MDS 3.0 Challenges

Teri Weiman, SSD-AD July 29, 2011

Our Minimum Data Set coordinator gave me warning that the social services section was going to be increased "exponentially" with MDS 3.0. I prepared well, but am I the only one who still cringes when we get to section D0200? AKA the Resident Mood Interview?

Nursing home operators must embrace quality efforts now

June 15, 2011

The risks of long-term care providers not improving quality are growing larger and more expensive every day, cautioned a nationally known expert Tuesday during a McKnight's Super Tuesday webinar.

LeadingAge: Don't dash through MDS 3.0 assessments

June 14, 2011

In a memo to its provider members, LeadingAge has warned that overuse of dash marks in MDS 3.0 assessments could result in the lowering of a facility's quality measure resident sample.

CMS long-term care conference call to feature MDS 3.0 update, updates on other issues

June 09, 2011

Federal regulators will hold their monthly national conference call for long-term care providers at 2 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Skilled Nursing Facility/Long Term Care Open Door Forum is free and open to all interested stakeholders. The proposed agenda is as follows: MDS 3.0 Update; Use of Dash; CMS Net; Claims Processing Clarification; Contact Information Update; QAPI. The hourlong session lasts about an hour and concludes with a wide-ranging question-and-answer session. Participants should call about 15 minutes before the start to (800) 837-1935 (Conference ID 59677634).

Administration explains possible huge nursing home pay-rate reduction

May 13, 2011

A possible Medicare payment rate reduction to skilled nursing facilities relates to higher-than-expected therapy classifications, federal officials explained Thursday.

Technology, legal matters, wound care, capital, MDS 3.0 and quality indicators featured in free online conference with free CEs

March 18, 2011

More registrants than ever are prepping for the fifth annual McKnight's Online Expo, which kicks off Wednesday and Thursday at a keyboard near you. Participants can earn up to five free continuing education (CE) credits by attending the hour-long sessions, which begin with legal expert John Durso's broadcast on technology concerns at 10 a.m. (Eastern) Wednesday. Free registration for all sessions is ongoing.

CMS says repeal of RUG-IV delay still possible, to relax MDS transmission rules

October 29, 2010

Federal regulators said Thursday they are hoping that Congress will act by the end of the year to keep in place full-time what is now being called a provisional RUG-IV nursing home Medicare payment system. Still, preparations for an alternate system recently began in earnest, an official for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Thursday during the agency's monthly SNF Open Door Forum conference call.

CMS says it is correcting MDS 3.0 system glitch

October 22, 2010

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is planning to release final MDS 3.0 validation reports, including revised reports, by 9 p.m. tonight, the agency said Thursday. A coding error caused the agency to send incorrect reports, and has led to system downtime and confusion among nursing home providers since Oct. 1.

Government conference call will let providers give, get an earful on latest MDS 3.0 changes

October 22, 2010

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has hosted free monthly update conference calls for nursing home operators for several years. Next Thursday's edition is bound to be one of the most popular ever. Implementation glitches and other news about the new MDS 3.0 nursing home assessment tool will be the hot topic during the SNF Open Door Forum, which begins at 2 p.m. Eastern. (See the top story at left and the blog entry below for more details and perspective on the subject.) To take part in the call ...

CMS provider call next month to focus on RUG-IV changes, payment issues

October 20, 2010

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a conference call for providers on Nov. 9 to discuss some of the recent significant changes made to the Resource Utilization Group-Version 4 (RUG-IV) system.

CMS to redo nursing home validation reports due to MDS 3.0 system glitch

October 19, 2010

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will have to reprocess validation reports for an estimated more than 100,000 records from nursing homes as a result of a glitch in the new MDS 3.0 system, Sheila Lambowitz, director of the Division of Institutional Post Acute Care at CMS, told McKnight's Monday.

The glitch

Liza Berger October 19, 2010

It's amazing what some lines of computer code can do. In the case of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, it threw off the workings of the new MDS 3.0 system.

MDS 3.0 nursing home resident assessment tool goes into effect today

October 01, 2010

Perhaps the largest operational change in nursing homes since the beginning of the prospective payment system is taking place today. Implementation of MDS 3.0, a resident assessment tool, starts.

What MDS 3.0 will mean for nursing home providers

Liza Berger October 01, 2010

So, it's finally here. MDS 3.0, the updated resident assessment tool, has officially taken effect. So how exactly will this highly anticipated system change the way you, nursing home providers, operate? There are several ways.

Providers get final session to query federal regulators before MDS 3.0 / RUG-IV start

September 10, 2010

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a skilled nursing / long-term care Open Door Forum conference call for providers at 2 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) Wednesday. It is the final regularly scheduled forum before the scheduled Oct. 1 start of the new MDS 3.0 / RUG-IV assessment and payment systems. They have been called the most dramatic changes for providers in several decades.