Memorandum
To: Mass Senior Care Members
From: Tara M. Gregorio, President
RE: COVID-19 Updates: MassMAP Reporting Discontinued; MassHealth Extends NF Coverage for Family Assistance Members; Guidance on Rest Home Surveillance Testing; NHSN LTCF COVID-19 Module Updates; DPH Weekly Call Reminder; and POC Testing
Date: July 14, 2020 – Afternoon Edition
MassMAP Reporting Discontinued
Effective today, the State Command Center and DPH are discontinuing the daily reporting requirement through MassMAP.
MassHealth Extends NF Coverage for Family Assistance Members
MassHealth has issued Nursing Facility Bulletin 149: Family Assistance Coverage Expansion for Nursing Facility Services. For dates of service beginning March 11, 2020, the MassHealth Family Assistance benefit will include coverage of nursing facility services up to a maximum of 100 days per admission to a nursing facility for MassHealth Family Assistance members. This Family Assistance benefit is available to all Family Assistance members, including those with Premium Assistance.
Guidance on Rest Home Surveillance Testing
On July 14, 2020, the DPH released guidance on Rest Home Surveillance Testing. Rest Homes must complete baseline testing of residents and staff by July 19 and must complete an attestation and report via an online survey by July 20. Weekly reporting will be required beginning July 31.
National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) LTCF COVID-19 Module
Updates to the NHSN LTCF COVID-19 Module include:
- An NHSN COVID-19 Module Dashboard for LTCFs is now available for participating groups and facilities and provides a summary of data entered in the module and includes an interactive chart display and customizable data views.
- Counts for “Admissions” – The count for “Admissions” has been revised to include admissions and readmissions of residents who were previously diagnosed with COVID-19 from another facility.
- Data quality improvement - To improve the quality of the COVID-19 data being reported users will notice alerts as a reminder of potential data entry errors.
- Non-modifiable fields – Non-modifiable fields have been added to each of the four pathway screens. The additional pieces of information for each pathway include: Date Created, Facility CCN, and Facility Type.
Guidance documents for groups and facilities to assist with navigating and understanding the features are available on the NHSN LTCF COVID-19 Web-page.
Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) Weekly Call for Nursing Homes and Rest Homes
The next DPH conference call for nursing homes and rest homes is scheduled for Wednesday, July 15, 2020 at 11:00 AM. This call will include members of DPH’s Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality, Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences, and Office of Preparedness and Emergency Management.
Call-in information:
Phone Number: 888-390-5007
Participant Code: 3479679
CMS Announces Point Of Care Testing For Nursing Homes
CMS today announced that it would send Covid-19 point-of-care testing machines to all skilled nursing facilities in the country, starting next week. The intent is to make rapid testing widely available for more providers. Additional information will be available shortly.