Save $200 off the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living’s Gero Nurse Prep course through November 15 with promo code INSPIRE21 (all caps). Specifically designed for registered nurses working in long term care, this curriculum provides comprehensive online training that leads to board certification in gerontological nursing by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for RNs.

The Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care is convening its Sixth Annual Summit virtually on Thursday, October 14, 2021 from 1:00-3:30pm ET. Registration is free and open to the public.

As part of October’s #MassCyberMonth programming the Massachusetts eHealth Institute (MeHI) and the MassCyberCenter invite you to join us on Thursday, October 14 at 10AM as we expand on one of the most critical aspects of organizational cyber preparedness – tabletop exercises to develop and rehearse incident responses.

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 Augusy 2021. This new file is meant to replace the updated List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE) database file available for download last month. Individuals and entities that have been reinstated to the federal health care programs are not included in this file.

On September 29th, Mass Senior Care Association and Mass Workforce Association hosted a webinar for long term care providers and MassHire workforce system staff on Strengthening Long Term Care Workforce Development Partnerships. More than 120 individuals attended the session to discuss the workforce needs of long term care providers and how to build successful workforce development partnerships in the future.

Today the Department of Public Health sent out a reminder to long-term care facilities of the requirements to report any clusters of influenza and respiratory illness using the Influenza/Respiratory Illness Cluster Reporting Form. These teleforms will be responded to by epidemiologists in the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (via phone call or email). One exception remains: for reporting of SARS-CoV-2 viruses (COVID-19) clusters, please continue to report those directly to the epidemiology unit by calling 617-983-6800. Please DO NOT use the respiratory cluster teleform to report COVID-19 clusters.

Mass Senior Care is asking every member to join us in urging state legislators to support nursing facility residents, their families and caregivers by funding Massachusetts Senior Care Association’s Nursing Facility Recovery and Sustainability Proposal. Click here to take action today!

The PRF Phase 4 and Rural Distributions application webpage is now live and offers an array of guidance and new educational opportunities including additional webinar dates in October.

The Legislature yesterday sent to Governor Baker a bill extending to April 1, 2022 the emergency COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave Program enacted earlier this year and set to expire on September 30, 2021, and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on September 27th released additional information on the $17 Billion Phase 4 and the $8.5 Billion Rural Distribution application.