E-News Update Articles

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), a non-partisan legislative branch agency that provides policy and data analysis and makes recommendations to Congress, yesterday issued its 2023 annual report.

The Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) released its Annual Report on the Performance of the Massachusetts Health Care System.

CMS is preparing to move to iQIES for MDS submissions and it is important to create an account and establish credentials in the HCQIS Access Roles and Profile (HARP) System.

We are pleased to announce our collaboration with Academic Platforms, the creator of CNAOnline.com, a nationally renowned on-line training program for nursing assistants.

The NIPF is a national forum for any infection preventionist (IP) or infection prevention champions in long term care (LTC) to share lessons learned and resources and get questions answered.

To address our historic, frontline worker shortage, it is critically necessary that facilities adopt the Resident Care Assistant (RCA) to Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) pipeline as a key strategy to grow your own workforce.

The Healey administration has announced that effective May 11, the state's modified COVID-19 public health emergency will be lifted in alignment with the end of the federal public health emergency.

March 13th -17th is Long Term Care Administrator’s Week, a time for us to appreciate and celebrate the critical role administrators have in providing leadership for the delivery of quality, resident-centered care and a supportive work environment.

The Healey administration has announced that effective May 11, the state's modified COVID-19 public health emergency will be lifted in alignment with the end of the federal public health emergency.

The RCA to CNA Pipeline: Leveraging Rapid Upward Mobility Wednesday, March 29, 2023 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM In order to work toward being fully staffed for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) in Massachusetts’ nursing homes, an additional 4,000 CNAs need to be hired. As the demand for CNAs clearly exceeds supply, facilities must embrace strategies to grow their own workforce. Learn how to recruit employees who are not yet certified, onboard them as Resident Care Assistants (RCAs), and quickly Upskill

Massachusetts has excellent, accessible options for upskilling CNAs to Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) through the State’s Vocational Technical Schools and Community Colleges. MSCA has confirmed these schools still have space available for the upcoming fall semester. A group of the State’s Vocational Technical High Schools have teamed up to form a consortium working together to build capacity in their popular adult education LPN training programs. The consortium came together to apply for a grant through the MA Workforce Skills Cabinet

The DPH released revised Caring for Long-Term Care Residents During the COVID-19 Response guidance. The revised guidance will no longer require surveillance testing in the long-term care facilities effective March 31, 2023.

The Senate passed a supplemental budget bill for state fiscal year 2023 which would extend to March 31, 2024 both the state’s policy of allowing (1) nursing school graduates and students in their final semester of nursing education to practice nursing in in-patient health care settings and (2) a nurse employed by an Assisted Living Residence to provide skilled nursing care in accordance with valid medical orders. Both of these provisions were originally authorized during the COVID public health emergency

March 26-April 1, 2023 in National Careers in Aging Week. The U.S. will need between 5.7 and 6.5 million nurses, nurse aides, home health, and personal care workers for the 27 million Americans who will require long term care by 2050. There is no better time than Careers in Aging Week to bring greater visibility to the full range of career opportunities in long term care and aging services, as well as to celebrate current employees in long term care

Lori Piracci, Human Resources Manager at Oriol Health Care, recently shared their excellent employee appreciation program with members of MSCAs Workforce Innovations Collaborative. Lori presented Oriol’s “Shout Out” program, which invites all employees, family members and residents to write a shout out expressing personal appreciation for acts of kindness and outstanding performance from employees in all departments. These shout outs are publicly posted in Oriol facilities as one element of the company’s culture building practices. The shout outs are collected

In today’s labor market there are simply not enough certified nursing assistants to meet demand. To address this shortage, MSCA actively promotes strategies to build the caregiving pipeline at all levels. With a 23% caregiver vacancy rate in MA, it’s absolutely vital that a key component of any workforce development strategy is to grow our own caregivers. To that end, MSCA is pleased to announce our collaboration with Academic Platforms. As the creator of the free Massachusetts Resident Care Assistant

The Customer-Focused Research Group (CFRG) within the newly formed Office of Burden Reduction and Health Informatics (OBRHI) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is currently conducting a Nursing Home qualitative research engagement focused on identifying the overall experience of National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) data reporting, Minimum Data Set (MDS) Assessment data reporting, and transitions in insurance coverage.

Kate Walsh, former CEO of Boston Medical Center Health System, was officially sworn in as the new Secretary of the Executive Office of Health & Human Services on March 1st.

Two important webinars are being held at the beginning of April, register now!

In December 2022, Mass Senior Care shared with members the strategies to address healthcare capacity that providers in the Commonwealth’s health care system agreed to assist in building capacity and ensuring timely throughput.

Mass Senior Care is pleased to welcome new members to our Association.

As a reminder, the FY 2023 SNF PPS Final Rule adopted one new quality measure into the SNF QRP: the Influenza Vaccination Coverage among Healthcare Personnel (HCP) measure. This data must be entered into the NHSN using Healthcare Personnel Safety (HPS) Component.

The Senate yesterday passed a supplemental budget bill for state fiscal year 2023.

The Coalition will be holding a virtual event on Friday, March 17th from 11am-12pm ET to give you a broader sense of what’s happening with the transition from MOLST to POLST and answer any questions.

MassHealth will be holding an online stakeholder forum on Wednesday, March 15th at 10 AM. All interested parties and members of the public are invited to join.

Governor Maura Healey and Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll yesterday filed their Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal totaling $55.5 billion, which includes critical funding for nursing home care and proposes to fully incorporate into the FY 24 Medicaid rate the one-time $165 million contained in the 2022 Economic Development Law, while also maintaining the current Medicaid nursing facility base rate and expanding the current $50 day per member add on for Medicaid Substance Use Disorder (SUD) residents to all nursing facilities.

Join the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI) and the MassCyberCenter on March 9th at 10 am for our monthly health care provider cybersecurity call. As always, we will be joined by representatives of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Commonwealth Fusion Center who will provide updates on recent cyber threats and trends. This meeting will also include a presentation on laptop security in health care.

The March 2023 Interim Quarterly Confidential Feedback Reports for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing (SNF VBP) Program are now available to download via the Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (QIES)/Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reports (CASPER) reporting system.

Mass Senior Care is offering important webinars on compliance and regulatory issues, please register now.

MSCA has joined with AHCA in their advocacy efforts to halt a potential CMS minimum staffing mandate that may be as high as 4.1 hours per patient day (HPPD). To date, only 28 members from Massachusetts nursing facilities have submitted letters to CMS and we need at least 100 letters sent by the February 28th deadline.

The Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) intends to conduct a procurement for One Care plans and SCO plans through an aligned Request for Responses (RFR) process. The RFR will result in One Care and SCO contracts that would provide coverage beginning in CY2026 (January 1, 2026). Through the procurement, EOHHS will select organizations to operate a One Care plan, a SCO plan, or both.

Mass Senior Care has been made aware of some confusion among members related to SUD training of facility direct care staff.

Massachusetts legislators filed over 7,000 bills to be debated during the 2023-2024 legislative session, including important nursing home legislation, which would provide further support for quality nursing facility care.

Earlier this month, the CMS CLIA office released memorandum 23-05-CLIA outlining procedural guidance for the use of form CMS-116.

Senate President Karen Spilka and Speaker of the House of Representatives Ronald Mariano announced their respective leadership teams and committee assignments for the 2023-2024 legislative session including the reappointments of the Chairs of the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means.

Register now for these upcoming virtual sessions.

The long term care sector’s urgent need to immediately hire 8,000 interdisciplinary care team members has wide reaching implications, including the hospital system’s ability to discharge patients on a timely basis.

NHSN released an updated version of the Excel Data Tracking Worksheet for facilities reporting COVID-19 vaccination data on health care personnel through the Healthcare Personnel Safety Component. The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) provided a COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) Transition Briefing. CMS will hold a National Nursing Home Stakeholder Call on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at 3:00 pm ET for long-term care providers, facility staff and resident advocates.

In accordance with Section 3 of Chapter 107 of the Acts of 2022, the prohibition on retaining residents who require skilled care in and ALR for more than 90 consecutive days (M.G.L c.19D, s.11), will resume on March 31st, 2023

Mass Senior Care is pleased to welcome new members to our Association. Our members have demonstrated their commitment to the senior care provider community by joining Mass Senior Care and we are grateful for their support.

The Coalition will be holding a virtual event on Friday, March 17th from 11am- 12pm ET to give you a broader sense of what’s happening with the transition from MOLST to POLST and answer any questions.

Over the last year, the Biden administration has been exploring the implementation of a federal minimum staffing mandate for skilled nursing facilities as part the Administration’s nursing home care initiative. CMS is expected to make an announcement by May 1st of a new minimum staffing mandate that may be as high as 4.1 hours per patient day (HPPD).

The Massachusetts Legislative 2023-2024 Formal Session has convened and lawmakers have filed over 7,000 pieces of legislation including legislation related to nursing facility resident care, financial stabilization and workforce

Register now for these upcoming sessions.

As we continue to support members in complying with infection prevention reporting requirements, Mass Senior Care has developed a grid outlining the current Infection Control Reporting Requirements.

The DPH sent a communication to all long-term care facilities strongly urging facilities to continue to provide and administer the primary COVID-19 vaccine series and COVID-19 booster vaccine to eligible residents and staff. MassHealth has announced that starting April 1, 2023, all current MassHealth members will need to renew their health coverage to ensure they still qualify for their current benefit.

On January 30, 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration announced its intent to end the national emergency and public health emergency (PHE) declarations related to the COVID-19 pandemic on May 11, 2023.

On December 29, 2022, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 removed the federal requirement for practitioners to submit a Notice of Intent (NOI), or a waiver application, to prescribe medications like buprenorphine, for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD).

In a final rule released on January 30th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized technical details regarding the Medicare Advantage (MA) Risk Adjustment Data Validation (RADV) program that CMS uses to recover improper risk adjustment payments made to Medicare Advantage (MA) plans.

The Customer-Focused Research Group (CFRG) within the newly formed Office of Burden Reduction and Health Informatics (OBRHI) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is currently conducting a Nursing Home qualitative research engagement focused on identifying the overall experience of National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) data reporting, Minimum Data Set (MDS) Assessment data reporting, and transitions in insurance coverage.