Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing an opportunity for the public to comment on CMS’ intention to collect information from the public. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the PRA), federal agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register…… Continue reading CMS-R-5: Physicians Certifications/Recertificationsin Skilled Nursing Facilities Manual Instructions

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS has posted 2 updates for the LTCSP on 2 consecutive days this week: #3 in the 9/27/2022 update – 2022 Summary of Major Software Enhancements looks like this: The Revision History and the .zip folder containing the Survey Resources with Staff Vaccine are found beneath…… Continue reading CMS Updates the LTC Survey Process Documents Again

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Monday, September 26, 2022 … Today, in another effort to improve nursing home transparency, safety and quality, and accountability, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is making additional data publicly available that provide more…… Continue reading Biden-Harris Administration Makes More Medicare Nursing Home Ownership Data Publicly Available, Improving Identification of Multiple Facilities Under Common Ownership

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Today, September 26, 2022, CMS posted updates to the LTC Survey Process: The updates are found here. [Briggs subscribers to the 1766 … Survey Guide – Interpretive Guidelines for Long-Term Care and  1766E … Survey Guide – Interpretive Guidelines for Long-Term Care – eManual will receive…… Continue reading CMS Updates LTC Survey Process Documents

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare “As stated at the beginning of this letter, CMS will no longer support the Medicare RUGs systems after October 1, 2023. CMS is available to assist states as Medicare RUGs transition to PDPM. Initial readiness determinations should be made by the states in collaboration with their…… Continue reading Guidance on Nursing Facility State Plan Payment and Upper Payment Limit Approaches in Medicaid Relying on the Medicare Patient-Driven Payment Model (SMD 22-005)

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare jRAVEN (version 1.8.2) is now available for download which contains the following updates:   The new MDS VUT, v3.6.1, updated to support the ICD Codes for I0020B that are in effect as of 10/1/2022, as well as the remapping of GG Discharge items when a dash is…… Continue reading jRAVEN v1.8.2 Released for October 1, 2022

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS posted QSO-20-39-NH … Nursing Home Visitation (Revised) on September 23, 2022. The above are two (2) excerpts from the updated 14-page QSO Memorandum.  The last five (5) pages of the Memorandum contain fifteen (15) updated FAQs:

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS issued a revised QSO-20-38-NH Memorandum on Friday, September 23, 2022. The first revision is found on page 3 of the 10-page Memorandum: Instruct facility staff, regardless of their vaccination status, to report any of the following criteria to occupational health or another point of contact…… Continue reading Interim Final Rule (IFC), CMS-3401-IFC, Additional Policy and Regulatory Revisions in Response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency related to LTC Facility Testing Requirements

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare An update to the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP) Annual Payment Update (APU) Table for Reporting Assessment-Based quality measures (QMs) and standardized patient assessment data elements to CMS is now available. This document has been updated to reflect the data elements that will…… Continue reading SNF QRP APU Table for Reporting Assessment-Based QM and Standardized Patient Assessment Data Elements and Data Collection and Final Submission Deadlines Affecting FY 2025