The Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) will be holding a remote public hearing on the 2022 Medicaid nursing facility rate on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, at 1 p.m. The regulation (101 CMR 206.00: Standard Payments to Nursing Facilities) was previously adopted via emergency regulation effective October 1st. Mass Senior Care will be testifying at the public hearing. Facilities interested in testifying at the hearing can obtain instructions on how to join the hearing by clicking here or

Massachusetts legislators are expected to begin debate of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding next week. We need your urgent support for Massachusetts Senior Care Association’s Nursing Facility Recovery and Sustainability Proposal.

Medicare Open Enrollment is from October 15 to December 7, 2021, and information for both aging services providers and Medicare beneficiaries in Massachusetts is available by clicking here.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is offering a web-based training course that provides an overview of the assessment and coding of Section O: O0100. Special Procedures, Treatments, and Programs. This 30-minute course is intended for providers in Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) and is designed to be used on demand anywhere you can access a browser.

MassHealth has asked provider associations to send to its members the following message on utilization of robotics processing automation on the Provider Online Service Center (POSC) MassHealth providers (including vendors and relationship entities) conduct day-to-day business with MassHealth electronically, via the Provider Online Service Center (POSC), point to point connectivity, and the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. All users must have an authorized MassHealth user ID and password to access these systems and must abide by the Virtual Gateway (VG)

The Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave (DPML) has posted the following links over the last calendar quarter in regard to the most recent updates available on PFML.

On June 30, 2021, Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) released a memo concerning the launch of the online training course for providers to prevent and eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in accordance with state law, Chapter 19A, Section 43.

Orientation sessions for the MassMAP will be held on Wednesday November 3, 2021, 10:00 – 11:30 AM or Thursday November 4, 2021, 1:00 – 2:30 PM. The orientation sessions are for new MassMAP members as well as staff who are not familiar with the MassMAP and/or the MassMAP website.

MassHealth is conducting a Massachusetts Preadmission Screening and Resident Review (PASRR) Training to provide information on upcoming changes to the PASRR process, which will come into effect by the end of this month. It is important to note that the training will be conducted in Microsoft Teams.