The Department of Public Health is following up to yesterday's Long-Term Care monthly call discussion on antigen test expiry date extensions, Long Term Care Infection Prevention & Control Webinar Series, and registration is now open for the new Workforce Innovations Collaborative (WFIC).

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) will be holding a conference call for long-term care facilities on Wednesday, August 10 at 11:00 a.m, and Mass Senior Care is pleased to offer two important virtual education programs designed to help facilities understand and comply with new guidance and requirements.

Join the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI) and the MassCyberCenter on August 11th at 10:00 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 Massachusetts State Police/Commonwealth Fusion Center who will provide updates on recent cyber threats and trends. The monthly topic for this call will be mobile device cybersecurity.

The July 19 CMS Administrator’s National Stakeholder Call recording and transcript are now available. Click the link for the recording and transcript: CMS National Stakeholder Calls.

There are so many learning opportunities at this year’s AHCA/NCAL Convention & Expo. Over the course of four days, October 9-12, you can choose from more than 100 sessions in 20-plus tracks, covering all critical aspects of long term and post-acute care.

The Long Term Care Survey manual, Phase 3 is now available to pre-order from AHCA for September delivery. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin enforcing new Phase 3 Requirements of Participation (ROP) on October 24, 2022.

Mass Senior Care is pleased to offer a variety of virtual education programs designed to help facilities understand and comply with new guidance and requirements. Registration is now open by visiting https://www.maseniorcare.org/events or by clicking on the specific program links.

For a small group of nursing facilities, the Fire Safety Evaluation System (FSES) has been a critical tool in documenting Life Safety Code® compliance through an equivalent means. The 2013 edition of NFPA 101A (FSES) left many nursing facilities without an effective equivalency tool, as the scoring methodology for the FSES became more restrictive and CMS would no longer accept waivers for areas that did not meet the equivalency.

Assisted living centers now have access to free COVID-19 testing for their staff and residents through December 31, 2022. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Operation Expanded Testing (OpET) program expanded access to free testing nationwide to now include assisted living communities, which previously targeted schools, shelters, and correctional facilities.