Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
Across this site, there are 400 plus posts spanning more than a decade. Sprinkled throughout, are posts on staffing and the need for labor, especially nurses. In other words, the U.S. health system, all provider segments, needs nurses and the pandemic exacerbated this need. The need is most critical at the bed side, direct care. … Read more
Yesterday, the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living plus the National Assocation of ACOs released a white paper that includes a set of recommendations for CMS, designed to increase the participation of long term and post-acute care (LTPAC) providers in accountable care organizations (ACOs). The white paper is available here: AHCA … Read more
Happy Hump Day! Long title for what is going to be, a rather brief post. As followers and regular readers know, my firm (I am the co-founder and part owner) H2 Healthcare, LLC has a practice area uniquely concentrated on clinical compliance and complex litigation support. The practice area is headed by Diane Hislop, RN (yes, … Read more
Among the many healthcare sectors I follow, rural healthcare has become my favorite. Oddly enough, it’s not because of the policy issues that exist, though it should be. It is because it is an overlooked sector and one that has a real risk of collapse. Last summer (2023) I wrote a post about the plight … Read more
In my reading stack this weekend (ok, virtual stack), I came across a number of articles on leadership and management. Some were good, some were not, and lots were focused on “old” issues and problems. One in particular, caught my attention – “Management as We Know it Is Broken: How can Leaders Fix It?” What … Read more
Working on a number of things today with other projects in the fire as well. Haven’t had much time to sit and think, let alone compose much of a post or do much research into current topics so this quicky via the notebook will have to do – Happy TGIF Eve! Tuesday’s CPI report and … Read more
TGIF! I live and have an office in Illinois, though my part of the state differs dramatically from the Illinois most people recognize. I live and work in a small town (Galena) in an area known as the driftless region. The driftless region is “original” terra-firma, where the glaciers did not touch. This area is in the far northwest … Read more
Happy Hump Day! My apologies right off for such a head scratching title but this is where I am most days when I see economic reports like the recent jobs report (last week) from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (report is here: January BLS Report 1 24 ) The news is good, maybe, kind of, … Read more
While it is important to celebrate that senior living occupancies are up to pre-pandemic levels, it is also important to note that in most cases, the data quoted via NIC for example, is regionalized and nationalized. Likewise, the results (the occupancy levels) are still not capable of generating strong, positive margins. Occupancy levels in the 87% to … Read more
In 2023, regulators re-instituted audits of facilities for inappropriate diagnoses of schizophrenia (justification for anti-psychotic use), plus a five-claim audit of every nursing home. The purpose of the audit was to address a long-standing concern that inappropriate coding was driving higher Medicare reimbursement under PDPM, despite documentation in patient records, not substantiating the level of care … Read more