Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare In November 2020, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced an upcoming topic of investigation for the office.  (Bolding in next paragraph added by me.) The transfer or discharge of a resident initiated by a nursing home can be an unsafe and traumatic experience for the…… Continue reading Facility-Initiated Discharge in Nursing Homes – Upcoming OIG Investigation Topic

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare Iowa DHS and IME issued INFORMATIONAL LETTER NO. 2196-MC-FFS on December 8, 2020. In response to the Federal Public Health Emergency (PHE), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released COVID 1135 Blanket Waiver on March 1, 2020, that included waiving 42 CFR 483.20 timeframe…… Continue reading Iowa LTC Providers: Minimum Data Set (MDS) / Medicaid Case Mix

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare December 4, 2020, CMS posted QSO 21-06-NH … Updates to the Nursing Home Compare Website and Five Star Quality Rating System.  This 3-page QSO memorandum provides updates on the Health Inspection and Quality Measure domains of the Five Star Quality Rating System, and the transition to…… Continue reading Updates to the Nursing Home Compare Website and Five Star Quality Rating System

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare CMS posted updates to several survey process documents/folders on November 25, 2020: The Revision History document provides this synopsis of the updates: Briggs’ subscribers to the Survey Guide 1766 and 1766E will soon receive these updates.

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare MLN Matters Number: MM11992 was posted November 6, 2020 with same title as this blog. This MLN Matters Article is for Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) and hospital swing bed providers billing Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) for services provided to Medicare beneficiaries.  This article informs you of…… Continue reading Updates to Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) Claims

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare The RAI User’s Manual will not be updated for FY2021 as per CMS’ original statement regarding such an update. The posting of the page I found late last week was only the required renewal of the PRA – Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.  In effect, the…… Continue reading No Update to RAI User’s Manual for FY2021

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDPClinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare This morning, during my usual ritual of checking key websites for new information, I found this on the CMS RAI Manual website: You’ll find it beneath Downloads on that webpage: I will continue to monitor this website for an updated RAI User’s Manual.  Stay tuned!