Providers will spend the weekend gnawing on more than turkey bones if they’ve left anything incomplete regarding the new federal Rules of Participation for nursing homes. The first phase becomes active Monday and encompass dozens and dozens of tweaks to mostly current practices, experts say.
Many of the requirements in this phase have been described as “straightforward” or things that providers should already be doing. But there are a lot of them to keep track of.
The most controversial provision was the ban on pre-dispute arbitration agreements, but it is currently on hold under a temporary injunction.
Phase I, however, also includes directives regarding care planning, admissions, assessments quality assurance and performance improvement, as well as tweaks to processes with doctors, nurses, dentists and therapists.
Next November will bring bigger changes, including new F-tag descriptions and a new survey process.
