Nursing home telehealth ‘cliff’ avoided with pay rule adjustments

Federal efforts to rein in Medicare Advantage spending and recoup payments awarded for improper diagnoses will likely lead to even more financial pressure on nursing homes that serve plan beneficiaries, according to experts who monitor managed care. The latest blow for insurers came Wednesday evening, when the Centers for Medicare...

Support for the concept of critical access nursing homes is growing among providers, but it has yet to gain much traction among industry leaders or the politicians who would need to create such a safety net for seniors and people with disabilities. Such a program could bring more stability to...

We’ve heard a lot of chatter about nursing home staffing mandates in the last few months. In one corner, we’ve got consumers and union reps angry that local ratios for skilled nursing facilities haven’t been enacted or enforced yet. Forget that state officials have backed off the very laws they championed in acknowledgment of the fact that, in some places, there is simply no one to hire.

Congress ended the temporary benefit meant to help low-income households with pandemic-era hardships. A huge increase in Social Security benefits may mean some households see further SNAP reductions.

Any Medicaid raise makes a difference to all nursing homes in today’s tight financial environment. But for one historic nonprofit Pennsylvania facility, a final rate determination this month made the difference between preserving a 146-year legacy of service and selling to a for-profit buyer. The board of the Inglis...

Nursing home operators and advocates across the country are desperately asking for legislative and regulatory relief, but any help that may come will be too late for six long-term care facilities that have been placed into receivership and the 263 residents who must find new homes. Last week, the owner...

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday made it easier for clinicians to prescribe the COVID-19 antiviral drugs Paxlovid and Lagevrio in cases where transmission is evident and the patient is at high risk of severe illness. The two drugs originally were indicated for use after receipt of a positive...

New findings offer evidence that medical cannabis could be helpful in tapering patients off long-term opioid treatment for chronic pain, investigators say. The study was conducted in New York state, where medical cannabis became legal in 2014. Investigators examined health data for more than 8,000 adults from 2017 to 2019. Prescription opioid dosages were tracked over the 12 months prior to receipt of medical cannabis and up to eight months later.

An operator behind Atrium Health and Senior Living and a former top executive were indicted Wednesday on an extensive list of healthcare fraud, tax fraud and money laundering offenses, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. The alleged crimes happened from January 2015 through September 2018, spearheaded by CEO Kevin Breslin...

Genesis Healthcare appears to be correcting its long-time slide in the nursing home sector, confirming this week that the company is adding 34 skilled nursing facilities in Pennsylvania and four in Colorado. All of the buildings were operated by former competitor ProMedica under agreement with real estate investment trust Welltower...

New federal numbers show that 135 nursing homes closed in 2022, significantly fewer than what was projected by the sector’s largest advocacy group. But industry sources said – and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services acknowledged – that the number does not reflect the full reality on the ground. Facilities planning to shutter must submit a closure plan to state regulators and CMS, communicate the information to staff, residents and their families, and then implement that plan after it is approved.

A lot of preconceptions and thought processes are going out the window at Guardian Healthcare, which boasts 35 skilled nursing facilities and more than 3,800 residents in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. That’s to make way for better collaboration and more localized decision-making. Guardian President and CEO Michael Herald explains...

Medication is often recommended as part of ongoing therapy to reduce long-term disease risk in diabetes, but a sizable number of patients do not consistently follow their healthcare providers’ advice, investigators have found. The researchers analyzed the use of glucose-, blood pressure- and lipid-lowering medications from the 2005 to...