Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare When: Tuesday, September 22, 2020, from 1:30 to 3 pm ET Registration:  Register for Medicare Learning Network events. Event Materials: Presentation: Available prior to the event at CMS MLN EventsAudio recording and transcript: Available approximately 2 weeks after the event Description:National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care and Quality Assurance…… Continue reading Dementia Care in Nursing Homes (Upcoming Call)

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Nursing Home Compare Five-Star Quality Rating System: Technical User’s Guide_State-Level Health Inspection Cut Point Table for August 2020 has been posted.  This is a 4-page document. “The cut points are recalibrated each month so that the distribution of star ratings within States remains relatively constant over…… Continue reading Five-Star Quality Rating System: Cut Point Table Updated

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS updated Appendix B with revision date of August 27, 2020. Appendix B provides the names and email addresses of each of the State RAI Coordinators, State MDS Automation Coordinators, RAI Coordinator Panel Members and Regional Office Contacts.   These are folks that you can reach out…… Continue reading RAI User’s Manual – Appendix B Updated Again

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS has updated the Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing Program: Frequently Asked Questions document.  Here’s the Table of Contents for this 11-page document: Page 10 also includes the FAQ for: Will the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) impact SNF VBP Program policies?

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare You can find the agenda items for this Open Door Forum on my blog earlier this week. CMS got started about 9 minutes late, but they had a lot to convey to providers/stakeholders.  Here’s a synopsis of what was covered (the links in this synopsis will…… Continue reading Recap of the CMS SNF/LTC Open Door Forum – August 6, 2020

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The TMF QIN-QIO developed this change package to assist LTC providers working directly with TMF QIN-QIO experts in improving resident care through early recognition of changes in condition.  Early Recognition of Resident Change in Condition Change Package … Version 1 was released in July.  If you…… Continue reading Early Recognition of Resident Change in Condition

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The Office of Inspector General (OIG) posted a report dated August 3, 2020 by the same title as this blog as well as this: Consumer Transparency Could Be Increased.  The 38-page report as well as the brief are interesting reads.  “Of 12,862 nursing homes, 7 percent…… Continue reading Nursing Homes’ Reported Staffing Levels in 2018 Raise Concerns

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Provider Preview Reports have been updated and are now available. The data contained within the Preview Reports is based on quality data submitted by SNFs between Q1 2019 – Q4 2019 (1/01/19 – 12/31/19) (for assessment-based measures) and Q4 2017 and Q3 2019 (10/01/17…… Continue reading SNF Provider Preview Reports – Now Available

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The next CMS Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF)/Long Term Care (LTC) Open Door Forum scheduled for:   Date:  Thursday, August 6, 2020 Start Time:  2:00 PM – 3:00 PM Eastern Time (ET) To participate by phone: Dial: 1-888-455-1397 & Conference Passcode: 9375124 (Conference Call Only) Please dial-in…… Continue reading Upcoming CMS SNF/LTC Open Door Forum – Thursday, August 6, 2020

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS has posted the ICD-10 PDPM Mappings for FY2021 on this webpage.  Scroll down the page to find: https://www.cms.gov/files/zip/fy-2021-pdpm-icd-10-mappings.zip-0 is the direct link to this .zip file. You’ll find these spreadsheets when you access that .zip file.