Fixing Healthcare Spending in the U.S.

On Monday, January 20, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the U.S. While his claim of an election mandate is very debatable, the expectations that come with his return to office are many. Chief among these expectations is that he/his administration will “fix” the debt driven, inflation riddled economy of the … Read more

Senior Living Capital Outlook 2025

Since the pandemic (COVID), capital investment in senior living has been disjointed (to say the least). The pandemic constrained demand and as the economy rebounded from periods of lockdowns, supply shortages, work reductions, etc., inflation snuck in. In turn, to battle inflation, the Federal Reserve steadily raised interest rates. The rise in rates changed the … Read more

Federal Assisted Living Regulatory Initiative

Last week via a member news release from Leading Age Minnesota, the specter of federalized Assisted Living regulation popped up. Per this release, legislation enabling federal assisted living regulation of some form is anticipated to be proposed by U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) prior to the year’s end. The primary outcome of what Senator Kelly … Read more

CMS Issues Updates on Immediate Jeopardy

Back in 2019, CMS issued revisions to Appendix Q of the State Operations Manual pertaining to Immediate Jeopardy considerations (on the part of surveyors) and ultimately, citation decisions.  This guidance was relevant for all provider and supplier types participating in Medicare (hospitals, home health, SNFs, etc.). In late October, CMS issued guidance on penalties. What … Read more

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