Meet Dianne Ferraro who is one of the 45,000 dedicated caregivers working on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic to protect and care for the Commonwealth’s nursing home residents. Dianne is a Nurse Unit Manager at Alliance Health at Rosewood in Peabody.

MassHealth requires that nursing facilities and chronic disease and rehabilitation inpatient hospitals account for the balances of personal needs allowance (PNA) account funds. MassHealth has issued its annual LTC Bulletin for the accounting of balances of personal needs allowances (PNA) for residents in LTC facilities.

Massachusetts Senior Care Association is excited to participate in the upcoming observance of National Skilled Nursing Care Week (NSNCW), which will be held May 9-15, 2021. This year's theme, "Together Through the Seasons," will honor the collaborative commitment of skilled nursing care facilities and their staff in providing compassionate care to their residents during this unprecedented time.

Join Mass Senior Care in advocating for quality nursing facility care in the state FY2022 budget. The budget is now being considered by the Massachusetts Senate. Please ask your State Senator to make nursing facility funding a priority in the state budget!

Please join us for Mass Senior Care Association’s 2021 virtual Spring Conference on Thursday, May 6, 2021. As we begin to slowly emerge from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that we begin to take steps to move forward. Our dynamic conference speakers, Steven Littlehale, MS, CGNS-BC, Chief Innovation Officer at Zimmet Healthcare Service Group and Martha Hayward, founding member of the Conversation Project and Lead Faculty for Patient Centered Care with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) will offer their respective perspectives on how the CMS Five Star System and our approaches to End of Life Conversations have been impacted by COVID-19 and will offer strategies we can implement to help our staff and our organizations adjust to the new operating environment.

DPH lifts Determination of Need (DoN) moratorium on LTC Beds for projects that meet certain criteria and the recently revised DPH Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities (105 CMR 150) requires nursing homes to convert resident bedrooms with three and four beds per room to two bedded bedrooms by April 30, 2022.

Members are notified MassHealth issued nursing facilities notice on Patient Paid Adjustments (PPA), EOHHS issued a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit feedback from a broad spectrum of interested parties and individuals regarding the use of enhanced home and community-based services (HCBS) funding available to states through Section 9817 of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and AHRQ would like to learn more about participating nursing homes’ experience in the National Nursing Home COVID-19 Safety Program led by Mass Senior Care and Hebrew SeniorLife’s Long-Term Care Command Center (MSCA/HSL) through Project ECHO.

A memo that the CDC has issued a study showing vaccination of nursing facility residents and staff are essential to reduce the risk for symptomatic COVID-19, as is continued focus on infection prevention and control practices, and there is an ongoing effort to ensure full compliance with the state’s surveillance testing program, CHIA has asked Mass Senior Care to work with members to help clarify two questions on the reporting survey.

Join Mass Senior Care in advocating for quality nursing facility care in the state FY2022 budget. The budget is now being considered by the Massachusetts Senate. Please ask your State Senator to make nursing facility funding a priority in the state budget! Send an email in less than two minutes in our Action Alert Center: https://p2a.co/8v1ouoy