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
The cost of inaction: 19 deaths an hour and rising
The Cost of Inaction: 19 Deaths an Hour and Rising is the title of the report released late last week by Senators Bob Casey (PA) and Ron Wyden (OR). Here’s the Executive Summary from this must-read 8-page report: The charts as well as information within the report, the references and … 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
COVID-19 vaccine codes: Updated effective date for Pfizer-BioNTech
The following was disseminated via MLN Connects Special Edition on late Monday afternoon, December 14, 2020: On December 11, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID‑19 Vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 for individuals 16 years of age and older. Review Pfizer’s Fact Sheet … Read More