Have you/your LTC facility signed up to participate yet? The AHRQ ECHO National Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network – a partnership between AHRQ, the University of New Mexico’s ECHO Institute and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) – provides free training and mentorship to nursing homes across the country to increase the … Read More
CMS updates LTC survey process documents
Late last week, CMS posted updates to 2 components of the survey process: #1 is a regulatory reference correction found in both the Word and PDF versions of CMS-20054. These are found in the LTC Survey Pathways .zip file. #2 is also a regulatory reference correction found in the COVID-19 Focused Survey … Read More
CMS posts current county positivity rates – December 14, 2020
CMS has posted the current county positivity rates, with the date of December 14, 2020. Past county positivity postings are found in the Archives. As always, remember that nursing homes are required to conduct testing of residents and staff. based on the COVID-19 positivity rate for the county the nursing home resides … Read More
HHS proposes modifications to the HIPAA privacy rule
On December 10, 2020, HHS and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced “proposed changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule to support individuals’ engagement in their care, remove barriers to coordinated care, and reduce regulatory burdens on the health care industry. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking … Read More
COVID-19 vaccine fact sheets and additional information
Pfizer has released several Fact Sheets relating to the just-approved COVID-19 vaccine: FACT SHEET FOR HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS ADMINISTERING VACCINE (29 pages) FACT SHEET FOR RECIPIENTS AND CAREGIVERS (6 pages) Global Information About Pfizer‑BioNTech COVID‑19 Vaccine (also known as BNT162b2) is also available for healthcare professionals as well as non-healthcare professionals. An adverse event … Read More