An op-ed, “The coronavirus quarantine problem for travelers and nursing homes,” authored by Simon Johnson, Dr. Sanjat Kanjilal, and Dr. Larissa Lucas was published in The Boston Globe this week. The authors of the op-ed continue to work closely with Mass Senior Care on a number of strategies and policies related to infection control, testing and PPE procurement.

HealthPRO Heritage, Mass Senior Care’s Clinical Quality Leader will be having a timely discussion to uncovers best practices for leveraging 1135 waivers. Key takeaways to include tactical and strategic considerations to drive your community's financial & clinical outcomes.

On July 31, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its final rule for the skilled nursing facility (SNF) prospective payment system (PPS) governing Medicare rates for federal fiscal year (FFY) 2021 (October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021). CMS projects that aggregate Medicare program payments to SNFs will increase by 2.2 percent, for FY 2021 compared to FY 2020.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued a 4-page SNF COVID-19 PHE Tip Sheet. This tip sheet is designed to assist Skill Nursing Facility (SNF) providers in understanding the status of the SNF Quality Reporting Program (QRP) during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE).

Fourth quarter FY 2019 Program for Evaluating Payment Patterns Electronic Reports (PEPPERs) are available for Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs). These reports summarize provider-specific data statistics for Medicare services that may be at risk for improper payments.