An update on DPH guidance on vaccination options for LTC residents and staff.

This memorandum addresses EOHHS update to the LTC Family Communication Letter, provides reminders about the DCC-Q filing due on March 1, 2021 and the DPH weekly call, also discusses how to request an extended repayment schedule in follow up to the recent update on Medicare Advance and Accelerated Payments (AAP).

A memo to members regarding an update to Medicare 3-Day Stay and Benefit Period Waivers Fact Sheet and FAQs and a reminder that the DCC-Q filing is due on March 1, 2021.

An update on Executive Office of Health & Human Services (EOHHS) release of a Family Communication, “COVID-19 Prevention Protocols Post Vaccination" and MassHealth All-Provider Transportation Provider Bulletin in regard to transportation for members to vaccination sites for COVID-19 vaccine administration.

Members are reminded about the surveillance testing requirement and January 2021 surveillance testing payments.

Mass Senior Care’s education programs will continue to be offered virtually for the next several months. Members receive discounted rates on all education programs/webinars, including partnership programs such as Harmony Healthcare. Please click on the links for each program to access the registration program or email lnguyen@maseniorcare.org if you have any questions.

As part of Mass Senior Care Association’s Arming Ourselves Against COVID-19 campaign, we continue to provide new educational materials regarding the COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy available in multiple languages to ensure trusted information is accessible to long term care staff, residents and their family members. New educational videos in Haitian Creole, Cantonese and Mandarin featuring Christine Pierre, MD and Robert Wu, MD are now available for Mass Senior Care members to use to help communicate facts about the COVID-19

This week, the Boston Herald published an article, Massachusetts nursing homes report dramatic drop in coronavirus death rate since vaccine rollout. “The virus death rate and case counts at nursing homes have significantly declined, a “very encouraging” trend that shows the vax working for the high-risk group that received it first, doctors tell the Herald.”

Members are updated on Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payment (AAP) repayments.