Being a More Effective Executive: A Checklist

Across my multiple decade career, I have spent a great deal of my work life mentoring and coaching executives and boards on developing effective habits and systems. As I have done a fair amount of turnaround work, building a high performing organization was as much about creating effective leaders and leadership habits as it was … Read more

Friday Feature: Four Topics to Watch

It has been a busy week and next week is a holiday week (Thanksgiving) so of course, a shortened news and work week. That said, there is a lot going on right now and for followers and readers, I thought sharing my top four topics to watch made sense. Tort Reform: Back in February, the Georgia … Read more

Twofer Tuesday: Marketing Insights for 2025

The bifurcated title for this post (twofer) means two quick subjects, wrapped into a “what’s next” for 2025. The wrapper in this case is marketing, a subject that I’ve often written about across this blog’s dozen plus year history (hard to believe it has hung around that long). According to NIC (National Investment Center), and … Read more

CMS Reinforces Hospice Regulatory, Fraud Focus

Yesterday, CMS dropped a memo to state survey agencies titled, “Ensuring Consistency in the Hospice Survey Process to Identify Quality of Care Concerns and Potential Fraud Referrals”. The memo is available here: qso-25-06-hospice According to CMS, the memorandum aims to bolster current mechanisms for detecting instances where a hospice provider’s failure to adhere to the … Read more

CCRCs (Life Plan): Econ Data in Marketing?

In a time of constantly changing markets, grasping economic indicators can give marketers a significant advantage. These indicators are statistical/data measures that provide a look into the economy’s present and future conditions, serving as potent instruments for devising marketing strategies in tune with consumer behavior, purchasing power, and the general state of the market. For … Read more

Oxford Valley Health v. Nursa Update

This case caught my attention back in March as it raises issues that I commonly hear about namely, staffing agency costs and possible abuses in terms of actual time worked v. time billed by the agency. My March post is available here: https://rhislop3.com/2024/03/28/skilled-nursing-operator-takes-legal-action-against-staffing-platform-for-alleged-overbilling/ Nursa, an electronic staffing application company based in Utah, filed a lawsuit … Read more

CMS Releases Home Health Final Rule 2025

On November 1 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the Calendar Year 2025 Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) final rule, which updates Medicare payment policies and rates for Home Health Agencies.  Unlike other Medicare provider types that have PPS rule updates corresponding to the federal fiscal year (10/1), home health … Read more

SNF Survey and Certification Update

When the 2025 Final SNF PPS Rule was released, the focus was on Medicare rate increases.  This is typically known as the “headline”. But as readers and followers here know, there is always a regulatory tidbit or two that can be even more significant in terms of operations, particularly as more and more Medicare patient … Read more

Litigation Breaks on CMS Staffing Mandate

As anticipated, litigation has started via various sources, in Federal courts, challenging CMS’ SNF “staffing mandate”. For specifics on the mandate and actual text, go here: https://rhislop3.com/2024/04/23/cms-final-snf-staffing-rule/ A big impetus behind the legal challenges to CMS mandate is the recent Supreme Court ruling known as the Chevron decision https://rhislop3.com/2024/07/01/scotus-chevron-decision-a-win-for-healthcare/ The decision overturns a longstanding doctrine … Read more

Touching Base with 2024’s Outlook

Back in December of 2023 (late), I wrote a post with my 2024 Outlook. I dusted off the “old” crystal ball and peering deeply, I offered a few prognostications.  The post is available here: https://rhislop3.com/2023/12/27/wednesday-feature-outlook-for-2024/ Below are the predictions along with a quick review of how close, or not, I was at the time.  I’ll … Read more