Articles and Blogs

April 16, 2021 is National Healthcare Decisions Day. The goal of the day is to encourage Americans to think and talk about their health care goals and communicate their health care decisions by executing advance health care directives. Recent studies have found that most Americans have not executed documents that name a health care... READ MORE

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (the “Act”) was signed into law on December 27, 2020 and recasts the Medicare hospice survey requirements and establishes new Medicare enforcement options and procedures. The Act’s hospice provisions generally track those contained in the Helping our Senior Population in Comfort Environments, also known as the HOSPICE Act, which... READ MORE

Most skilled nursing facilities and state survey agencies are not correctly reporting and investigating abuse and neglect incidents that occur against skilled nursing residents, according to the June 7, 2019, Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report titled Incidents of Potential Abuse and Neglect at Skilled Nursing... READ MORE

On June 3, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published revisions and updates to Part 460 to Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The requirements for the Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (“PACE”) under the Medicare and Medicaid programs (“Final Regulations”) cover many regulatory requirements for PACE... READ MORE

On November 30, 2018, CMS issued a Memorandum to State Survey Agency Directors (QSO-19-02-NH), announcing its concerns about adequate registered nurse staffing in skilled nursing facilities and that it will provide CMS Regional Offices and State Survey Agencies with a list of facilities with potential staffing issues to support survey activities for evaluating sufficient staffing and... READ MORE

Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (“Court of Appeals”) released an opinion that confirmed a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) assessment of an immediate jeopardy citation and an $83,800 civil money penalty against a nursing home for inadequately addressing sexual interactions between cognitively impaired nursing home... READ MORE