Member Resources

On November 22, 2019, CMS released a memo entitled "Updates and Initiatives to Ensure Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes." The memo includes updates and announcements on several including Phase 3 Interpretive Guidance, Arbitration Agreements, Infection Prevention and Control and New Toolkit on Employee Satisfaction.

Due to the overall decrease of Tuberculosis cases and low incidence of TB among Health Care Personnel due to occupational exposure, routine practice of annual testing is no longer recommended for HCP. The recommendations for facility risk assessments and infection control practices did not change from the 2005 guidelines.

Mass Senior Care's 2019 Annual Meeting & Trade Show event was a great success. Tara Gregorio, President of Mass Senior Care highlighted the success of advocacy efforts which resulted in a $66 million increase for nursing home care.

Massachusetts Senior Care Association is a proud partner organization of The Massachusetts Healthcare Safety and Quality Consortium which brings together the state’s health care community — providers, payers, patients, government agencies, and other policymakers and experts — to accelerate safety and quality improvement statewide.

Mass Senior Care’s priority legislation to allow certified medication aides in nursing facilities was the subject of a hearing before the Joint Committee on Public Health this Tuesday.

Save 10% on long term care and assisted living publications through the AHCA/NCAL online bookstore.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) last week issued a proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation that would impact provider assessments and upper payment limit (UPL) programs.

Earlier this year, EOHHS established a new grant program for eligible MassHealth providers to fund efforts to improve access to health care services for individuals with disabilities or for whom English is not a primary language.

The American Health Care Association (AHCA) has provided the following PDPM Claims Payment Update: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) informed AHCA that all Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) claims, including multiple Health Insurance Prospective Payment System (HIPPS) code claims, will now process. Members should submit all claims as quickly as possible to start the 14-day floor claims process.

Please find the conference handouts from Mass Senior Care's 2019 Annual Meeting & Trade Show.

Mass Senior Care's Annual Meeting & Trade Show event on November 14, 2019 is sold out. If you have any questions, please contact Mass Senior Care's office at 617-558-0202.

Download PHI's guide to help providers recruit and retain direct care workers and improve the delivery of care.

Massachusetts Senior Care Association is a proud partner organization of The Massachusetts Healthcare Safety and Quality Consortium which brings together the state’s health care community — providers, payers, patients, government agencies, and other policymakers and experts — to accelerate safety and quality improvement statewide. The consortium led by the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety was formed after a study found 62,000 preventable harm events in Massachusetts in 2017. The goal of the consortium is to create a Roadmap to

The DoN Program issues a yearly informational bulletin on annual adjustments to the DoN expenditure minimums to adjust the Substantial Capital Expenditure dollar amount for inflation.

The Legislature continues to deliberate on the $700 million FY 2019 year end supplemental budget, which includes $10 million to restore funding for 170 nursing facilities which saw rate cuts of up to $2.80 per day, as a result of an abrupt and fundamental redesign of MassHealth’s longstanding capital reimbursement methodology.

Mass Senior Care last Friday presented testimony on EOHHS’ $56 million nursing facility rate regulation. At the public hearing, Chief Operating Officer Gary Abrahams noted that the October 1 regulation implemented the legislatively-required $50 million rate increase, which is necessary to begin to help stabilize the nursing facility sector.

The Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality has released a Circular Letter providing clarification on the use of the term “ambulatory” in the definition of rest home in 105 CMR 150.000 Standards for Long-Term Care Facilities

Due to technical difficulties with the Quality Award Portal, the American Health Care Association is extending the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Intent to Apply (ITA) deadline to Thursday, November 21st. Submissions must be received before 8 pm ET on November 21st.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on November 1st announced via a Federal Register notice that it is extending the validity of TPS-related documentation for beneficiaries under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan through January 4, 2021.

Mass Senior Care invites staff at member facilities to participate in various committees designed to share information on the topics of clinical quality, regulatory, human resources and finance and reimbursement.

Effective November 1, 2019, the American Red Cross State Testing Office, which coordinates certification renewals for certified nurse aides (CNAs), has a new address.

The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released its updated list which reflects all OIG exclusions and reinstatement actions up to, and including, those taken in October 2019. This new file is meant to replace the updated List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE) database file available for download last month. Individuals and entities that have been reinstated to the federal health care programs are not included in this file.

The submission deadline for the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP) has been extended to November 18, 2019. Assessment data SNFs submitted April 1 – June 30 (Q2) of calendar year (CY) 2019 are due with this deadline.

Mass Senior Care will present testimony on EOHHS $56 million nursing facility rate regulation at tomorrow’s public hearing. Mass Senior Care is grateful that the October 1 regulation implements the legislatively-required $50 million rate increase designed to begin to help stabilize the nursing home sector.

Legislation impacting long term care facilities was heard at the October 29th Joint Committee on Elder Affairs hearing. Representative Denise Garlick (D-Needham) presented oral remarks on her bill, House Bill 609, An Act Relative to Promoting the Betterment of Resident’s Health and Safety in Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Facilities

Life Care Centers of America recently honored Ted Eliopoulos, Director of Business Development, upon his retirement. Ted has worked in long term care for over 25 years and throughout his tenure has been an active member of Mass Senior Care Association. We extend our best wishes to Ted!

The Intent to Apply (ITA) for the 2020 AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award application cycle application cycle is closing soon! The deadline to submit an ITA is November 7, 2019. AHCA/NCAL encourages you to submit an ITA through the Quality Award Portal here before the deadline. For more information about the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program and the benefits of submitting an ITA, please visit ahcancal.org/qualityaward .

Staffing data from July 1st through September 30th must be submitted no later than 45 days from the end of the quarter. The final submission deadline for this quarter is November 14th, 2019. Only data successfully submitted by the deadline is considered timely and used on the Nursing Home Compare website and in the five star rating calculations. Once a facility uploads their data file, they need to check their final Validation Report, which can be accessed in the Certification

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a short video tutorial on October 17, 2019 to assist providers with coding the Minimum Data Set (MDS) GG0130A. Eating item.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released 13 YouTube videos recorded during a 'Train-the-Trainer' event which occurred in Baltimore, Maryland on August 13 and 14, 2019.

The Senate Committee on Ways and Means earlier this week proposed its FY2019 deficiency appropriation bill, which includes $10 million to restore funding for 170 nursing facilities which saw rate cuts of up to $2.80/day.

The 2nd meeting of the legislatively mandated Nursing Home Task Force was held last Friday, October 18, and focused on Medicaid reimbursement and Labor and Workforce issues. Separate presentations were made by: Assistant Secretary for MassHealth Daniel Tsai, MSCA President Tara Gregorio and Jennifer James, Undersecretary, Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

Alexis Exama knew she wanted to be a nurse growing up. Her mother, a nurse at a local nursing home, would bring Alexis to visit with residents.

Join Us on December 4th for a fun event to support the Mass Senior Care Foundation! Featuring a Craft Beer Tasting, fun food and the opportunity to network with long term care leaders!

Please join Mass Senior Care, NALCO Water, An Ecolab Company and the Department of Public Health on October 31, 2019 at 1:00 pm for a webinar on Legionnaires’ Disease: What’s New, What’s True and What to Do.

Massachusetts Bronze and Silver Quality Award recipients were recognized at the AHCA/NCAL Annual Convention in Orlando. Mass Senior Care congratulates the following member facilities for their achievement and dedication to performance excellence.

EOHHS has indicated that it will postal mail to facilities their October 1 Medicaid 2020 rate certification letters at the end of this week, with receipt expected by the Monday, October 28 th. For any questions about rate certification letters, providers should contact CHIA’s LTC call center via email at CHIAcostreports.LTCF@State.MA.US or by phone at 617-701-8297. As noted in Mass Senior Care Association’s earlier communication to members, the new rate regulation is a $56 million package, including implementation of the

AHCA has provided an update in regard to CMS and Medicare Administrative Contractors (MAC) Claims Processing.

The House of Representatives, yesterday, passed its FY2019 deficiency appropriation bill, which includes $10 million to restore funding for 170 nursing facilities which saw rate cuts of up to $2.80/day, as a result of an abrupt and fundamental redesign of MassHealth’s longstanding capital reimbursement methodology.

Oriol Health Care recently donated 35 ventilator units to Dr. Plutarco Castellanos. Dr. Castellanos will be bringing the ventilators to a newly built hospital in Honduras which will help people in need who are waiting for a unit to become available.

The CDC will host a free webinar on Preventing the Spread of Novel or Targeted Multidrug-resistant Organisms (MDROs) in Nursing Homes through Enhanced Barrier Precautions on Thursday, October 24, 2019 from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm. The CDC recently introduced a new approach called Enhanced Barrier Precautions to help address the challenges in caring for residents with MDROs in nursing homes.

MassHealth’s Technical Refresh, on October 27, 2019, will replace its "end of life" HIPAA compliance and translator tool. Providers and Trading Partners who submit and receive 270/271 batch eligibility transactions are required to evaluate the changes outlined in the MassHealth HIPAA Companion Guides, modify their systems as appropriate, and test the transaction with MassHealth to ensure that files submitted on or after the implementation date will process correctly.

Mass Senior Care’s President Tara Gregorio and Vice President of Clinical Operations for Bane Care Management, Lynne Farrell were featured in the Betsey Lehman Center’s Patient Safety Beat article, "Efforts are on to raise flu vaccination rates for Massachusetts health care staff."

Mass Senior Care earlier this week testified at the MassHealth hearing on the Ambulance and Wheelchair Van services regulation that was adopted on an emergency basis, effective September 20, 2019. The regulation updated Medicaid transportation rates. MSCA members have noted that access to wheelchair van transportation for nursing facility residents to travel to needed physician, treatment or other medical appointments has become increasingly difficult to secure over the last year as many transportation providers have found it challenging to provide transportation service to nursing facilities residents due to Medicaid underfunding.