May 08, 2013
Skilled nursing providers should ratchet up Medicare Part A compliance initiatives to meet the increasingly intense scrutiny of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a compliance expert said in a McKnight's Super Tuesday webcast. "CMS is serious about this," said Leah Klusch, executive director of The Alliance Training Center.
The Minimum Data Set manual will be revised to reflect a new correction policy, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently announced.
April 01, 2013
How important is it that diagnoses coded in Section I of the MDS match what is being billed on the UB-04?
March 06, 2013
Nobody should pass up the opportunity to have a nationally respected professional expert visit his or her office. The chance to get six in there in a short amount of time? Outrageous. Yet, it's going to happen.
March 01, 2013
Comprehensive nursing assessments and data monitoring tools from COMS Interactive provide critical help to the CommuniCare Family of Companies, according to Chief Medical Officer Matthew Wayne, M.D.
March 01, 2013
When is face-to-face contact with a resident not such a good idea? When an avatar can do better. That's just one lesson researchers like Timothy Bickmore, Ph.D., are proving. Bickmore is an assistant professor in the College of Computer and Information Science at Northeastern University.
February 15, 2013
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is encouraging provider input as it seeks to change the payment system for therapy provided by skilled nursing facilities.
February 01, 2013
What happens if my therapy company makes an error on the MDS and as a result, a change of therapy was missed? Are we still responsible?
Team TSI and AIS recently announced a partnership that will result in greater product organization between the two firms. Both firms create web-based software for long-term care operators. Under the partnership, the AIS product will work directly with Team TSI's MDS Analyzer.
PointClickCare has completed its acquisition of Accu-Med Services. Accu‐Med delivers integrated financial and clinical software solutions for long-term care providers.
October 19, 2012
As the industry moves from fee-for-service to the episodic world of care, much emphasis has been placed on understanding how payment systems work over the past couple of decades. This view evaluates outcomes at the close of an episode, before the checks get cut.
September 12, 2012
Overcoding or undercoding incontinence in the MDS 3.0 is a problem that can draw the attention of surveyors, says McKnight's Super Tuesday speaker Leah Klusch.
September 05, 2012
PointRight combines Minimum Data Set 3.0 data and unique analytics to calculate case-mix adjusted hospital readmission rates.
Regulators have released the final rule that outlines criteria hospitals and other providers must meet to receive funding for a federal electronic health-record incentive program.
August 02, 2012
Let's be honest with each other. I made a bad career choice, and so did you. We should have been Olympic discus throwers. What were we thinking?
July 02, 2012
Nursing home administrators who can't back up every minute of rehab therapy delivered in their building leave themselves open to auditing, warns an MDS 3.0 expert during the July 10 McKnight's Super Tuesday webcast. Every skilled nursing facility billing minutes to rehab services must be able to verify that he or she has read all of the updates to the RAI Manual, as well as all of the changes that took effect April 1, adds Leah Klusch, RN, BSN, FACHA. That and much more was discussed during the free webcast, which remains available for viewing in an online archive for a year.
June 12, 2012
Muppet theory can change the way we view business, and today is brought to you by the letters L, T and C.
April 20, 2012
There's a familiar saying in the industry that "If it's not documented, then it's not done." But what if it is documented, but just not documented correctly?
January 20, 2012
Skilled nursing operators must complete resident interviews for MDS 3.0 evaluations, a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official reminded providers Thursday on a national conference call.
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.
August 19, 2011
Have you started your COT trending analysis? On Aug. 8, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the final ruling and commentary for the new implementation of the MDS changes set to take effect on Oct. 1. Of these many changes, I believe the most significant will be with the Change of Therapy OMRA.
March 31, 2011
When it comes to embracing quality, long-term care operators are making great strides. Most seem to realize that many of the old ways of getting the job done don't cut it anymore.
November 01, 2010
John Durso, Esq. Ungaretti & Harris LLP
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will host a conference call Wednesday to discuss the Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System Resource Utilization Group-Version 4 (RUG-IV).
The first of three satellite broadcasts by federal regulators on the new Minimum Data Set 3.0 will take place from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. (Eastern Time) Thursday. Officials with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will give a wide-ranging introduction of the new assessment tool, which is on track to go into effect Oct. 1.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued new MDS coding guidance for skilled nursing facilities for the upcoming flu season.
August 25, 2009
A controversial new rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid rule will recalibrate Medicare case mixes under the Resource Utilization Group (RUG) system. Specifically, it will eliminate a section of the Minimum Data Set (MDS) and change the RUG classification process for short-stay residents.
May 28, 2009
It's a wrap on RAPs. Resident Assessment Protocols (RAPs) will be eliminated under a new assessment regimen in development, an official with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced on Thursday.
April 13, 2009
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week posted on its Web site a new schedule for the planned October 2010 rollout of the new MDS 3.0. But the agency quickly removed it the same day.
March 25, 2009
The third annual online trade show for the long-term care field starts today with a whole range of educational webcasts and virtual vendor booths. It's not too late to register for the two-day event at www.mcknights.com/expo.
