I like tapas from time to time, especially for a happy hour gathering. Thursday seems to always be a good day to have little bites of something prior to a big weekend; even better if Friday is a short day or a day off into the weekend.
In a post earlier this week I mentioned that this week, though summer and Congress is on vacation, still contained a lot of stuff in motion. Final Rules for PPS programs continue to publish (I did a summary on Hospice earlier in the week) and of course, economic news remains forefront as the economy is on everyone’s mind, particularly with respect to Fed activity (interest rates).
So below are some small health policy, etc. news bites for this “tapas Thursday”. Enjoy!
- CPI/Inflation Report for July: The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the inflation report this morning for July and the data is decidedly “meh”. CPI was up just a tick from 3% in June to 3.2% in July. The driver for the increase was “shelter” or housing costs. These costs continue to climb. Energy is also moving up but likely to have a bigger impact in August. Food continued to rise; at home 0.3%, and away 0.2%. Core inflation, removing energy and food, increased 4.7% to a year-over-year level of 4.9%. What this likely means is that the Fed will hold its current rate levels in-place and monitor through August. Right now, the Fed funds rate is 5.25% to 5.0%. The whole report is available here: cpi July report
- Three Day Stays/Observation Stays for Medicare SNF Benefits: Lawmakers in the House reintroduced a bill known as the Access to Medicare Coverage Act of 2023 last Wednesday, August 4th. A portion of this bill seeks to have hospital observation stays (overnights that have not been coded as inpatient) count toward the three day stay (three overnights) qualification requirement for Medicare coverage in a SNF. As of current, the three days/overnights must actually be coded/classified as an inpatient admission, excluding overnights in an observation stay location, outpatient setting, etc. Hospitals have used observation stays/rooms as a mechanism to reduce payment risk for stays that are retroactively determined by CMS to be non-medically necessary for inpatient admission and reimbursement under the Hospital PPS (DRGs) program. The legislation has bi-partisan support so there is a reasonable chance of passage.
- National Long-Term Care Commission: A bill introduced in the Senate, Supporting our Seniors Act, would create a National Advisory Commission on long-term care services to assess and provide information to Congress on service delivery, financing, labor adequacy, and other issues related to long-term care. What is interesting to me is that this Commission will not include, as of now unless something changes, any representatives from the industry trade groups or providers. The bill text is available here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/4862/text?r=2&s=1
- New Nurses, Not for Long: The staffing platform ConnectRN conducted a survey in conjunction with The Nursing Beat newsletter and found that among 1,300 survey participants, 50% have side-hustles to make extra money. Of the group, 39% were CNAs, 27% were LPNs, and the remainder, 34% were RNs. Four key findings came from the survey and the participants. With existing direct care labor shortages, the findings do not foretell an improving future (more clinical staff, staying at the bedside).
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- Half of respondents who were new nurses, meaning they were in the profession for less than three years, said they plan to transition out of nursing and make their side hustle a full-time job. Among all respondents, this figure was 26 percent.
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- Eighty percent of respondents said they have ambitions to start their own business.
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- More than half of nurses indicated they want to further their education, but can’t due to their schedule.
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- For 90 percent of nurses, these were the top five factors they indicated were extremely important to them: maintaining their mental health; being present for family and friends; maintaining a work-life balance; maintaining their physical health; and excelling at work.