Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare “This report details how the Trump Administration’s deregulatory agenda, repeated failures to adequately prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic, and its delayed and disorganized response exacerbated, and in some instances contributed to, a worsening public health crisis that has disproportionately affected the most vulnerable populations in the…… Continue reading COVID-19 in Nursing Homes: How the Trump Administration Failed Residents and Workers

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare If you’re a data hound as I am, this is a resource you’ll want to check out.  The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) maintains a State Data and Policy Actions to Address Coronavirus website that has different data from what many of us have seen and all…… Continue reading Looking for More COVID-19 Data?

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS’ MLN Matters is reporting another update to SE20011 on July 1, 2020: Billing InstructionsThe following guidance provides specific instructions for using the QHS and benefit period waivers, as well as how this affects claims processing and SNF patient assessments. To bill for the QHS waiver,…… Continue reading Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) Response to the COVID-19 PHE: Another Billing Update

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare In case you’re keeping track, CMS has released Version 4 about 12 days after the release of Version 3.  That alone will tell you how fast things are changing with COVID-19 in LTC facilities. The latest version – 4 consists of 142 pages, 8 more pages…… Continue reading Toolkit on State Actions to Mitigate COVID-19 Prevalence in NHs – Now Version 4

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare This next session is entitled Transparency: Resident and Family Notification. The session is on Thursday, July 2, 2020 from 4-5pm EDT. During this webinar, the latest federal guidance regarding the importance of transparency during the COVID-19 public health emergency will be reviewed. Participants will learn best…… Continue reading Transparency: Resident and Family Notification – 6th in National NH Training Series

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The latest data can be found at https://data.cms.gov/stories/s/bkwz-xpvg. For comparison, these were the counts for the week ending June 7, 2020: Scroll down this webpage to view individual facilities and states for COVID-19 data. More information on viewing/using the NH Data set is found here.

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The CDC updated the Preparing for COVID-19 in Nursing Homes website on June 25, 2020 The CDC also updated Clinical Questions about COVID-19 (Health Care Workers) on June 28, 2020.  This website does not provide a summary of what’s new so please check it out and…… Continue reading Recent Updated COVID-19 Guidance

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare On Friday, June 26, 2020, MLN Matters SE20011 was revised to add the section, “Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Benefit Period Waiver – Provider Information” and related billing instructions. All other information remains the same.  You will definitely want to share this updated information with your billers. …… Continue reading SNF Benefit Period COVID-19 Waiver – Provider Information and Related Billing Instructions

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare We’ve all been up-to-our-eyeballs battling the spread of COVID-19 in our senior living facilities as well as our communities at large.  By now, you’re well aware that New York State sustained great losses in both communities overall as well as senior living communities.  A recent study…… Continue reading Policy Recommendations Regarding SNF Management of COVID-19: Lessons From New York State

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS issued a 4-page Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Nursing Home Visitation guidance document on Wednesday afternoon, June 24, 2020 (this document is dated June 23rd).  This is a 7-point document that includes responses to these questions: What steps should nursing homes take before reopening to…… Continue reading FAQs on Nursing Home Visitation Issued