Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare On March 23, 2020, I blogged on the findings of the Kirkland nursing home and CMS’ new targeted survey activities. CMS issued QSO-20-20-All which provides prioritization for surveys during the 3-week time frame beginning March 13, 2020: Complaint/facility-reported incident surveys Targeted Infection Control surveys Self-assessments…… Continue reading Prioritization of Survey Activities – CMS Guidance

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Just minutes ago today (March 23, 2020), CMS posted this Fact Sheet with this accompanying message: “Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing the preliminary results of a recent inspection of the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Washington –…… Continue reading CMS Announces Findings at Kirkland Nursing Home/New Targeted Plan for Healthcare Facility Inspections in light of COVID-19

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Just a few minutes ago (March 19, 2020), CMS announced that it is delaying the MDS 3.0 v1.18.1 release.  This notification is posted at https://qtso.cms.gov/news-and-updates/cms-delaying-implementation-october-1-2020-minimum-data-set-30-v1181-release and https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/NursingHomeQualityInits/MDS30RAIManual.  (The former is the QTSO website; latter is the MDS 3.0 RAI Manual website.) Please note the comments…… Continue reading CMS Delays the Release of the October 2020 MDS Item Set

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS posted this notification today in MLN Connects – March 19, 2020: SNF Claims Incorrectly Cancelled From January 26 through February 16, 2020, a software issue caused Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) claims to be incorrectly cancelled with a message that there was no three-day qualifying…… Continue reading SNF Claims Incorrectly Cancelled

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine has a COVID-19 website with great information for all clinicians   I mentioned some of these resources (sample letters for example) last week in this blog. Here’s what you’ll see on this website: The above 6 blue boxes…… Continue reading COVID-19 Resources from AMDA

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Texas Health and Human Services as posted an 18-page document on specifics of a focused survey in LTC facilities.  At this point, we have not seen any specifics from CMS proper except for the March 4th posting of QSO-20-12-All.  The state of Texas is well-known…… Continue reading Focused Infection Control Surveys in Nursing Facilities

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare In response to President Trump’s declaration of a national state of emergency Friday afternoon, March 13, 2020, CMS has again revised and updated QSO-20-14-NH…Guidance for Infection Control and Prevention of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Nursing Homes. Included in this guidance is that ALL facilities…… Continue reading Guidance for Infection Control and Prevention of COVID-19 in Nursing Homes REVISED Again

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare On March 9, 2020, CMS posted a revised QSO-20-14-NH which now includes revised guidance for visitation.  This 7-page notification has significant guidance (in red font) for visitation.  Half of pages 2 and 4 are new with page 3 containing expanded recommendations for limiting visitors in…… Continue reading Revised Guidance for Infection Control and Prevention of COVID-19 in Nursing Homes

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Today, CMS issued three (3) QSO notices regarding activities surrounding the COVID-19 status in the U.S.  Seema Verma (CMS) announced the posting of these notifications just minutes ago this afternoon during the COVID-19 Task Force’s afternoon briefing [FYI: these briefings have been televised nationally the…… Continue reading CMS Issues Three (3) QSO Notifications Today Re: COVID-19

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare On March 3, 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced “the launch of the Department of Justice’s National Nursing Home Initiative, which will coordinate and enhance civil and criminal efforts to pursue nursing homes that provide grossly substandard care to their residents.”   The Press Release…… Continue reading Department of Justice Launches a National Nursing Home Initiative