The DoN Program issues a yearly informational bulletin on annual adjustments to the DoN expenditure minimums to adjust the Substantial Capital Expenditure dollar amount for inflation.

The Legislature continues to deliberate on the $700 million FY 2019 year end supplemental budget, which includes $10 million to restore funding for 170 nursing facilities which saw rate cuts of up to $2.80 per day, as a result of an abrupt and fundamental redesign of MassHealth’s longstanding capital reimbursement methodology.

Mass Senior Care last Friday presented testimony on EOHHS’ $56 million nursing facility rate regulation. At the public hearing, Chief Operating Officer Gary Abrahams noted that the October 1 regulation implemented the legislatively-required $50 million rate increase, which is necessary to begin to help stabilize the nursing facility sector.

The Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality has released a Circular Letter providing clarification on the use of the term “ambulatory” in the definition of rest home in 105 CMR 150.000 Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities

Due to technical difficulties with the Quality Award Portal, the American Health Care Association is extending the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Intent to Apply (ITA) deadline to Thursday, November 21st. Submissions must be received before 8 pm ET on November 21st.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on November 1st announced via a Federal Register notice that it is extending the validity of TPS-related documentation for beneficiaries under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan through January 4, 2021.

Mass Senior Care invites staff at member facilities to participate in various committees designed to share information on the topics of clinical quality, regulatory, human resources and finance and reimbursement.

Effective November 1, 2019, the American Red Cross State Testing Office, which coordinates certification renewals for certified nurse aides (CNAs), has a new address.

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 October 2019. 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.

The submission deadline for the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP) has been extended to November 18, 2019. Assessment data SNFs submitted April 1 – June 30 (Q2) of calendar year (CY) 2019 are due with this deadline.