Healthcare, Senior Living, Economics
An issue that continues to confound the hospital and SNF industry is the growing use and thus, referral and coverage (Medicare) ramifications of observation stays. Fundamentally, and observation stay by current definition is a non-inpatient stay – an extended residence in an outpatient status. Truly, this a bifurcated problem or issue; hospitals wishing to avoid … Read more
Last week I spoke at two joint provider-surveyor training conferences regarding QAPI or more specifically, how it really works and what it looks like in “real-time”. QAPI is a new survey requirement for SNFs; fully expanded to Quality Assurance, Performance Improvement. Up until recently, SNFs were required by federal conditions of participation to have a Quality Assurance function, … Read more
As luck would have it, work interfered with my plans to have all of the industry outlooks for this year complete and published by February 1. Good news: Ground work is done now I just need to get to the writing and editing on a consistent basis. With any luck and a bit of fortitude, … Read more
Lately I have fielded a growing number of questions regarding various applications/uses of the False Claims Act and Medicare billing inquiries. What is disconcerting about these inquiries is their source; too many from providers or provider organizations. One in particular arises out of an acquisition and this bears special note and comment which, I have … Read more
More than two years ago I wrote a post regarding “five” things every SNF administrator should focus on and lo and behold, a reader asked late last week if I would revisit this subject. She (the reader) is not an SNF administrator so she asked if I could focus more globally; sort of a “best practices” … Read more
With all of the election news blaring (thank goodness the end is soon here), some important health policy issues have been somewhat lost in the milieu. Below is a quick summary of what has caught my attention as of late (a heads-up for readers). Medicare/SNF Class Action Settlement: This is profound on a number of … Read more
Opening celebration at the Olympics is catching most of the buzz today and the Dog Days of Summer are definitely full-on. Still too much heat and not enough rain for my pleasure but August is around the corner and hopefully, some cooler weather. If nothing else, I can rely on the Olympics to alter my … Read more
Seems every day this month has been hot and dry – could use a break from the heat and definitely, some prolonged rain. Within the past couple of weeks, I’ve traveled “rural” a bit and as a result, I have a different perspective on what farmers and ranchers in the middle-section of the country are struggling … Read more
Back after a week of vacation (sort of) and then a week of scramble to catch up, here’s the latest that I am watching and that I find trending from readers and clients. Medicaid and Health Care Reform: Oddly, this has been a Medicaid week for me on a number of fronts. The Supreme Court decision … Read more
By popular request, I’ve created a new feature to this site to cover issues and topics “in brief” that I am watching or in some cases, directly tangential to by engagement. Weekly, my inbox is awash in “what have you heard?”, “are you seeing this?”, “what’s going on with?”, etc., type questions. I do try to answer them … Read more