E-News Update Articles

To kick off the 2018 grassroots efforts in support of the Nursing Home Quality Jobs Initiative, Mass Senior Care will be delivering signed thank you cards from member facilities to legislators.

A calculation error has been identified for the three assessment-based quality measures reported on the SNF QRP Facility- and Resident-Level QM report and the SNF QRP Review and Correct reports (NQF #0678, NQF #0674, and NQF #2631).

The Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) has indicated that the 2018 Direct Care Staff Payment Interim Compliance Webform is live on EOHHS’s web portal.

South Cove Manor at Quincy Point has announced the appointment of William Graves as President and CEO, effective March 1, 2018.

Earlier this week the House of Representatives passed a funding bill to avert a government shutdown. The bill included a provision to permanently repeal the Medicare Part B outpatient therapy caps.

The Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) has issued a Notice of Proposed Agency Action which would implement the $7.5 million Medicaid nursing facility rate increase contained in the SFY 2018 budget.

National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care and Quality Assurance Performance Improvement will host a call on Tuesday, March 20 from 1:30 to 3 pm ET. During this call, gain insight on the phase two changes for person-centered care planning and discharge planning.

CMS is releasing a newly revised SNFABN along with newly developed, concise and separate instructions for form completion.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the Payroll-Based Journal (PBJ) data for the third quarter of the calendar year 2017 to the public through a public use file (PUF) posted here.

Effective February 1, 2018 through April 30, 2018, the $7.5 million increase will be incorporated into facilities' rates via an annualization adjustment to the existing user fee add-on.

The Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) today issued an Administrative Bulletin (AB) regarding compliance with the nursing facility user fee assessment program. The AB, which applies beginning with February 1st user fee payments, outlines procedures for non compliance with the quarterly user fee payment and form submission requirements. Please note the following: Failure to pay the user fee assessment in full within 30 days of the due date will result in EOHHS sending a final demand notice

On December 22, 2017 CMS issued an Administrative Memo 18-06-NH: memorandum, “Revised Federal Oversight Support Survey (FOSS) Process National Pilot”. Effective January 8, 2018, CMS is piloting a new two phase FOSS, which will replace the current traditional FOSS and Federal Oversight Quality Indicator Survey (FOQIS) processes. The new FOSS process will focus on the following three broad areas: Abuse and neglect Admission/transfer/discharge Dementia care Prior to 2018, each Regional Office (RO) identified concerns unique to that region. This identified

The Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) has issued an Administrative Bulletin outlining the compliance rules for the SFY 2018 Nursing Facility Direct Care Staff Payments and a sample spreadsheet of the Interim Report. The official Compliance Form must be filed electronically online, via EOHHS’s web portal.

Submissions for the 2018 National Quality Award Program are now being accepted online! Application packets are available on the Bronze, Silver and Gold award web pages.

On January 18, 2018, the U.S.Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that current beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) who want to maintain that status under Haiti’s designation through the program’s termination date of July 22, 2019, are required to re-register between January 18, 2018, and March 19, 2018. Re-registration procedures, including how to renew employment authorization documentation are provided on uscis.gov/tps. All Salvadorans with TPS status are required to re-register between now and March 19, 2018 in order to

Joy showed up in the lobby of the Copley at Stoughton nursing home on Sumner Street 12 days before Christmas.

Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP) Confidential Feedback Reports/Quality Measure Reports are available via the Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reports (CASPER) Reporting System.

In this session, we will discuss the key regulatory compliance points for survey, the 7 zones of entrapment and how they are measured. Hosted by: Helen Magliozzi, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Massachusetts Senior Care Association and Brenda Demirjian, Strategic Account Manager at Geriatric Medical. Please note: This webinar is being offered to Mass Senior Care Association Members and Geriatric Medical Clients Only Webinar Details: Tuesday, February 6th 1:00 pm- 2pm Click here to register

Our national association, AHCA, has provided on update on the impact of the Congressional Delay on Medicare Extenders Including Part B Therapy Caps starting on January 1, 2018. AHCA previously informed membership that Congress had adjourned for the 2017 session without enacting legislation to address what is often referred to as Medicare "extender payment policies." These policies expired on December 31 and include the Part B therapy cap exception process.

A revised Medicare-Required SNF PPS Assessments Educational Tool is available.

As a follow-up to the article in last week's E-News Update regarding S&C Memo 18-08-NH: An Initiative to Address Facility Initiated Discharges that Violate Federal Regulations, our national affiliate, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) has provided the following summary for members.

Effective March 1, 2018, MassHealth will begin offering an expanded selection of health plan options to managed care eligible members. These new options are Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), and a key part of MassHealth PCDI. MassHealth will also continue to offer Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) and the Primary Care Clinician (PCC) Plan as managed care options. Please click here to read MassHealth All-Provider Bulletin 272, November 2017.

To improve the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of reporting, DPH has transitioned from a paper-based system to an electronic web-based system for the reporting of Health Care Personnel Influenza Vaccination Data for the 2017-2018 Influenza Season.

As a reminder, PBJ data that your center collected from October 1 – December 31, 2017 must be submitted by February 14, 2018.

On December 22, 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released S&C Memorandum 18-08 NH An Initiative to Address Facility Initiated Discharges that Violate Federal Regulations. Federal regulations allow facilities to initiate discharges of residents only in specific instances. As indicated in the memo, despite these protections, discharges which violate Federal regulations continue to be one of the most frequent complaints made to State Long Term Care Ombudsman Programs.

Please join independent owners in New Orleans March 14 – 16 for the AHCA/NCA 2018 Independent Owner Leadership Conference.

Each winter, clusters of respiratory and gastrointestinal (GI) illness occur in Massachusetts’ long term care (LTC) and assisted living (AL) facilities. Clusters of gastrointestinal and respiratory illness in a LTC or AL facility are reportable to public health upon their initial identification, and can be reported using the Gastrointestinal Illness or Influenza/Respiratory Illness Cluster Reporting Forms, found on the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) website.

Mass Senior Care invites staff at member facilities to participate in various committees designed to share information on the topics of clinical quality, regulatory, human resources, finance and reimbursement and education and training. This information and feedback will assist MSCA staff with developing policy positions and prioritizing strategic initiatives.

After 15 years with Salter HealthCare, most recently as CEO, Bob Driscoll is set to retire at the end of this month. Over his 41-year healthcare career, Bob has worked as a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator, Executive Director of several family-owned nursing homes and since 2002 as the Chief Operating Officer and CEO at Salter.

MassMAP will be holding regional Training and Orientation sessions for new MassMAP members as well as for staff who are not familiar with the MassMAP website.

To improve the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of reporting, DPH has transitioned from a paper-based system to an electronic web-based system for the reporting of Health Care Personnel Influenza Vaccination Data for the 2017-2018 Influenza Season. Please click here to access Circular Letter: DHCQ 17-12-676 Important Change in Process to Report Seasonal Influenza Vaccination of Healthcare Personnel (HCP) at Massachusetts Adult Day Health Programs, Non-Ambulatory Surgical Center Clinics, Nursing Homes and Rest Homes for the 2017-2018 Influenza Season.

On December 21, 2017, the Department of Public Health Bureau of Healthcare Quality and Office of Preparedness and Emergency Management released a memo regarding the ongoing Intravenous (IV) fluid shortages and possible resources to address small-volume parenteral solutions availability concerns due to Hurricane Maria’s impact in Puerto Rico. To read the full memo, please click here.

Mass Senior Care invites staff at member facilities to participate in various committees designed to share information on the topics of clinical quality, regulatory, human resources, finance and reimbursement and education and training. This information and feedback will assist MSCA staff with developing policy positions, prioritizing strategic initiatives and identifying educational needs and opportunities. Please view the 2018 Committee Descriptions and Schedule of Meetings. For more information, please contact Jennifer Chen, Director of Membership Engagement at jchen@maseniorcare.org.

The Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Reporting Program (SNF QRP) Confidential Feedback Reports/Quality Measure Reports containing the assessment and claims-based IMPACT Act measures are now available via the Certification and Survey provider Enhanced Reports (CASPER) Reporting System. For more information on these reports, please refer to the December 6, 2017 presentation and audio and transcript on the SNF QRP Training website. Please note- CMS has discovered an error in some of the MSPB measure calculations contained in the SNF October 2017

MassMAP will be holding regional Training and Orientation sessions for new MassMAP members as well as for staff who are not familiar with the MassMAP website. Training is for MassMAP members only. Please click here for registration information.

As Mass Senior Care reported in November 2017, revisions to 105 CMR 725.000 Implementation of an Act for the Humanitarian Medical Use of Marijuana, were approved by the Public Health Council on November 8, 2017. The final regulations contain several revisions that relate to the use of medical marijuana making it more akin to the administration of prescription medication for residents and patients. The regulation does not require nursing facilities to become caregiving institutions, the choice to register as a

The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released its updated list which reflects all OIG exclusions and reinstatement actions up to, and including, those taken in December 2017.

On December 21, 2017 the Board of Registration in Nursing issued an Update to Required Training for Sexual and Domestic Violence Prevention. The Board of Registration in Nursing (Board) must comply with the law that requires training for health care providers on the issue of domestic and sexual violence as a condition of licensure (M.G.L. c. 112, § 264).

In November of 2015, CMS released Survey & Certification Memo 16-06 (SC-Letter-16-04-Focused-Survey-Tools), which included tools that were utilized for the Focused Dementia Care Survey process.

The Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) last week issued proposed revised rates for services provided by temporary nursing to licensed hospitals and nursing facilities -- 101 CMR 345/Temporary Nursing Services. The proposed amendments would establish the rate limits for temporary nursing agency services for each geographic region as purchased by hospitals and nursing facilities effective May 1, 2018. EOHHS estimates that the proposed rate limits—if all purchasers utilized the maximum rate—will result in an increase of approximately

The New England QIN-QIO (Healthcentric Advisors), in partnership with Honoring Choices and BayState Medical Center invites you to join them on January 18, 2018 from 12:00pm - 1:00pm to explore tools and strategies that will support patient centered end of life discussions and ensure patient wishes are documented and shared across care settings.

Submissions for the 2018 National Quality Award Program are now being accepted online! Application packets are available on the Bronze, Silver and Gold award web pages. All applications and payments must be submitted via the online portal before February 1, 2018 at 8 p.m. EST.

Jewish Healthcare Center of Worcester recently announced that longtime Director of Clinical Services, Anne-Marie Jette, will retire at the end of December 2017 after over 23 years of service.

On December 18th, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a notice indicating that it will continue accepting 2016 OSHA Form 300A data through the Injury Tracking Application (ITA) until midnight on December 31, 2017.

The Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) has issued emergency regulations and updated its FAQ’s - Updates in Employer Health Care Contributions and Experience Rate Schedule Adjustments for 2018 – 2019 regarding the changes that will result from the temporary two-year employer health contribution law that will take effect on January 1, 2018 and expire at the end of calendar year 2019.

Please note that Mass Senior Care Association and American Health Care Association 2018 membership renewal notices will be mailed out next week. If you have any questions about these notices, please call the office at 617-558-0202. Thank you for your ongoing support and participation.

The Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality (BHCSQ) of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health invites you to attend a stakeholder presentation on the Supportive Planning and Operations Team (SPOT) Initiative.

Last week, nearly 200 facility representatives participated in the Department of Public Health (DPH) webinar on the adjustments that are being made to the Nursing Home Survey Tool (or Nursing Home Report Card) that will begin in January 2018.

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

On Wednesday, December 13th, Mass Senior Care launched its redesigned website featuring improved functionality for members and enhanced consumer resources. The web address will remain the same, http://www.maseniorcare.org and members will need a user name and password to access Members Only information. If you have questions or need assistance logging in to the Members Only section, please email info@maseniorcare.org or call the office at 617-558-0202.