On February 9, 2018, President Trump signed a two-year budget deal that includes a provision to permanently repeal the Medicare Part B therapy caps, a longstanding priority of the post-acute care provider community. 

As part of the Massachusetts Senior Care Association's continued effort to update members on MassHealth's five-year 1115 ACO/MCO waiver, we are writing to share with you an important memorandum.

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.

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. 

Any nursing home that holds itself out to the public or advertises itself as having a dementia special care unit must comply with the requirements at 105 CMR 150.022 through 150.029, and submit its annual disclosure form to the Department of Public Health by March 1, 2018, as required at 105 CMR 150.028(A), regardless of whether the information previously reported in the form has changed.

On January 26, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released updated frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the Long Term Care Regulations, Survey Process, and Training requirements.

As part of our ongoing efforts to support recruitment and retention of frontline staff for member providers across the Commonwealth, Massachusetts Senior Care Association and Massachusetts Senior Care Foundation jointly released a Request for Expression of Interest for a Workforce Development Consultant to identify effective recruitment and retention strategies within and outside of the long term care sector that could be adapted to boost staff recruitment and retention in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health would like to remind all licensed adult day health programs, non-ambulatory surgical center clinics, nursing homes, and rest homes of the deadline for the mandatory reporting of healthcare personnel influenza data. The reporting deadline is April 15, 2018 at 5:00 pm.

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 January 2018.