The Oklahoma Healthy Aging Initiative is offering workshops to teach family caregivers how to care of an older adult and communicate with healthcare providers. Read More »
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) submits it recommendations to Congress for how to establish a unified, cross-setting post-acute care payment system. The plan would redistribute payments among types of stays, making profits more uniform and hopefully reducing unnecessary services and admission preferences. Read More »
A new study on implementation of electronic health records (EHR) has identified several obstacles for doctors, chief among them poor user experience. Read More »
Republicans from the U.S. House of Representatives announced a healthcare reform proposal that would challenge parts of the Affordable Care Act but retain some of the Act’s more popular provisions. Read More »
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has issued its annual report on refinements to Medicare payment systems and on issues affecting the medicare program Read More »
Congressional subcommittees have proposed changes to the Social Security Act to cover an initial care plan for Medicare beneficiaries newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias to help them understand the disease and treatment options. Read More »
SPONSORED BY:
Automating resident care equipment cleaning and disinfection: The new paradigm
By Karl Soderquist, President, The HUBSCRUB Company If you've got wheelchairs, you've got a cleaning problem. As standards for disinfecting medical equipment tighten, automation can help ensure compliance and save on manual labor. Learn More »
As the opening keynote at the Memory Care Forum in Philadelphia, NASL policy guru Cynthia Morton discusses what’s coming next from CMS on long-term care quality measures and how that data might affect your five-star quality rating. Read More »
Hawaii state lawmakers reviewed several proposals before their legislative session ended, including some related to the oversight and inspection of long-term care facilities. Read More »
Are the new Justice Department Elder Justice Task Forces a smokescreen to cut costs? Long-Term Living's politics and policy reporter, Robert Gatty, examines the forces at play in the new initiatives. Read More »
The Department of Health and Human Services has implemented regulations to protect the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community on the basis of gender identity and sex stereotyping in healthcare and insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Read More »
The largest private insurer in the country has announced it will be ending its participation in most state healthcare marketplace exchanges, but it has some new plans for the future. Read More »
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will test a new payment model that encourages doctors to focus on health outcomes rather than volume of visits or tests. Read More »
The Center for Innovation has invested more than $30 million for Indiana University’s project to reduce avoidable hospitalizations for nursing home residents by providing higher levels of care on site. Read More »
A group of health information technology nerds enjoyed finding obscure and absurd ICD-10 codes like toxic effect of venom of bees, intentional self-harm. They thought others might, too, so they found their favorites, formed a publishing company and illustrated them for your amusement. Read More »
The new law will require the state’s Department of Elderly Affairs to sort and prioritize those who are receiving long-term care services and those who are waiting for consideration. Read More »
A U.S. Senate Working Group has outlined priorities for improving Medicare delivery to beneficiaries with multiple, complex chronic illnesses while reducing healthcare expenditures. Read More »
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services seeks ideas for improving care delivery through a Special Innovation Program and will offer 28 awards totaling $8 million. Statements of Objectives will be available early April. Read More »
The CDC and CMS announced they will celebrate the one-year anniversary of the transition to the new classification system by implementing new diagnosis codes, hospital inpatient procedure codes and revision of existing code titles. Read More »
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will test a new payment model for nursing facilities and practitioners to further reduce avoidable hospitalizations and lower Medicare and Medicaid spending while improving patient care. Read More »
A new interactive mapping tool drills down to the state and county levels and reveals where the delivery of Medicare outcomes are falling short across 18 chronic conditions. Read More »
The data set examines the levels of care performed and resources used in skilled nursing facilities, including how many days are billed as the ultra-expensive “ultra-high rehabilitation.” Read More »
Does Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recognize industry improvements? Washington policy expert Robert Gatty looks at whether the government's efforts have been effective. Read More »
The new initiative allows states to request the 90 percent enhanced matching funds to connect more Medicaid providers to a state health information exchange. Read More »
State legislators failed to pass a bill that would have required nursing home employees to learn how and be assessed on how they care for people with dementia. Read More »
A piece in the Journal of the American Medical Association found high-risk older adults benefit from having a phsyician follow them throughout their continuum of care from the hospital to the skilled nursing facility to home. Read More »
