UPDATE Weekly

Sign up today for the 2014 Annual Awards Celebration – Going for the Gold on Tuesday, February 25th. Providers, vendors and community representatives will unite to honor excellence in our profession. Don’t miss a firsthand account from the 2014 Winter Olympics from guest speaker, 1994 Olympic gold medalist, Dan Jansen. Be a part of this special evening and join us in recognizing the NCHCFA 2014 Special Award recipients. Watch him on NBC throughout the 2014 Winter Olympics!

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Time is running out, register today for the NCHCFA Annual Convention and Expo, February 23-26, 2014 at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel at Four Seasons/Joseph S. Koury Convention Center, Greensboro, NC. Don’t miss the opportunity to earn up to 16 hours of educational credit for North Carolina Nursing Home Administrators, as well as up to 14 hours of Nursing CE credit! To obtain an additional brochure visit the Member Center of the Association’s Web site at http://www.NursingHomesNC.com.

The North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association would like to thank the 2014 Corporate Sponsors for their generous support of the upcoming Annual Convention & Expo. Be sure to visit them on Tuesday, February 25th at the booths listed below:

PruittHealth – Booths 325 & 327
UniHealth Home Health – Booth 428
United Hospice – Booth 430
United Medical – Booth 426
United Pharmacy – Booths 329 & 331
United Rehab – Booth 424

Be sure to register for the Chairman’s Evening Extravaganza, A Night in Olympic Village for a night of fun. Remember to dress as your favorite athlete from the past or present, or as a spectator from your favorite country. Cash prizes will be awarded for the best dressed male and female!

Don’t miss the opportunity to bring a Nursing Assistant or a Billing Office staff member for free! If a facility registers two staff members for Package Two, a Nursing Assistant or a Billing Office staff member may attend Package Two at NO CHARGE!

The North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association would also like to thank the 2014 Convention Hosts for their generous support of the upcoming Annual Convention & Expo. Be sure to visit them on Tuesday, February 25th at the booths listed below:

Blue Ridge Pharmacy – Booths 315 & 317

Healthcare Services Group, Inc. – Booths 429 & 431

Medipack Pharmacy – Booth 530

NH Med Services – Booth 528

Poyner Spruill LLP – Booth 302

Southern Pharmacy – Booths 501, 503 & 505

Does your facility have a question for NCTracks? On Tuesday, February 25th, NCTracks will have a help center open exclusively for 2014 Convention attendees. Eight representatives from NCTracks will be on-site to assist individuals with specific questions. This will be similar to other help centers that have been held across the state, except this will be solely for SNF providers attending the NCHCFA Annual Convention. Please bring a list of your NCTracks issues as well as any supporting documentation. Please bring a list of your NCTracks issues as well as any supporting documentation. The Help Center will be open on a first come, first serve basis, from 8:00 am-5:00 pm conveniently located near the EXPO Hall.

In addition, NCTracks will also provide a brief progress report of the Medicaid claims processing system as it continues to develop and improve since its implementation July 1, 2013 for Package One attendees during “Reimbursement Hot Topics” and for Package Two attendees during “Billing Office Staff Day – Navigating NCTracks.” “Navigating NCTracks” will be a very detailed and informative program for Billing Office Staff. If your Medicaid Billing Staff have any specific questions and/or concerns they would like addressed LIVE during “Navigating NCTracks,” please e-mail them to Sam Clark at samc@nchcfa.org and include “NCTracks Question” in the subject line.

Call the Sheraton at (800) 242-6556 to make your room reservation. Identify that you are with “NC Health Care Facilities Association 2014 Convention” to receive the group discounted rate.

If you have any questions or need additional details, please call the Association office at (919) 782-3827.

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The Administration has announced further Affordable Care Act (ACA) delays. Employers with between 50 and 99 full-time workers will not have to comply with the law’s requirement to provide insurance or pay a fee until 2016. Earlier this week, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service released regulations that included this health insurance requirement delay for some employers. More details can be found in the Treasury Department’s press release, the Department’s fact sheet and the 227 page final rule itself.

According to the Treasury Department’s press release, this is how the announcement affects employers:

• Small businesses: Under the ACA, companies that have fewer than 50 employees are not required to provide coverage or fill out any forms in 2015, or in any year.
• Larger employers with 100 or more employees: Today’s rules phase in the percentage of full-time workers that employers need to offer coverage to from 70 percent in 2015 to 95 percent in 2016 and beyond. Employers in this category that do not meet these standards will face a penalty in 2015.
• Employers with 50 to 99 employees: Companies with 50-99 employees that do not yet provide quality, affordable health insurance to their full-time workers will report on their workers and coverage in 2015, but have until 2016 before any penalties may apply.

Originally, employers with the equivalent of 50 full-time workers or more had to offer coverage or pay a penalty starting at $2,000 per worker beginning in 2014. Last year, the Administration announced a one-year reprieve in enforcement of the requirement, from 2014 to 2015. According to the Wall Street Journal, a senior Administration official said the shift reflects the Administration’s observations on the law’s implementation and its willingness to acknowledge business concerns, though the official said that no single reason was behind the change.

If you have any questions relating to the ACA, please submit them to insurancecoverage@ahca.org and be sure to check out AHCA/NCAL’s ACA Web site.

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The “Updated LEIE” database file reflects all OIG exclusion and reinstatement actions up to, and including, those taken in January 2014. This new, “Updated LEIE” (List of Excluded Individuals and Entities) is a complete database file containing all exclusions currently in effect. Individuals and entities that have been reinstated to the federal health care programs are not included in this file.

All the updated files are posted at http://oig.hhs.gov/exclusions/exclusions_list.asp.

Instructional videos explaining how to use the on-line database and the downloadable files are available.

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NC Health Care Facilities Association presents ICD-10-CM Essentials for Long Term Care March 19, 2014 in Greensboro, NC! Being taught by Pathway Health Services, this one-day seminar will have the following objectives:

• Learn structure, organization, and unique features of ICD-10.
• Understand basic coding guidelines.
• Demonstrate ability to look up and code basic diagnoses.
• Understand how coding relates to billing.
• Relate coding guidelines to all types of care.
• Know basic disease classification and how to use resource books.
• Be able to determine primary diagnosis.

Brochures will be mailed this week!

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To obtain a copy of the minutes from the Business Meeting held on Sunday, February 10, 2013 at the Sheraton Four Seasons/Joseph S. Koury Convention Center, Greensboro, NC, please click here.

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Teamwork is an undisputed asset for reducing nursing and medical errors, improving quality of patient care, resolving workload issues, and avoiding burnout. This text helps to foster the leadership expertise and partnerships that will facilitate the delivery of the highest-quality care. It based on the time-tested wisdom that leadership knowledge, skills and, competencies gained by training a group of nurses in the same organization rather than a single nurse are much more likely to result in genuine organizational transformation. It is the only text available to focus in depth on building and maintaining effective partnerships, motivating and developing others in the team, organizational analysis, strategizing, communicating, planning and managing change, measuring team and partnership effectiveness through metrics, and leveraging results within and outside of the organization.

To order, visit http://www.AHCApublications.org or call (800) 321-0343.

Product #8306
AHCA MEMBERS $60.00

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Important information for residents and families. This brochure outlines what physical restraints are, when they should be used, rules and regulations concerning restraints, and making decisions about using them. Contact Jan Williams at janw@nchcfa.org to order brochures for your facility.

NCHCFA Member: $30.00 per 100 brochures plus tax and shipping
Non-Members: $60.00 per 100 brochures plus tax and shipping

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“Nursing home billed me £600,000 – for what?” – in London, one 95 year-old nursing home resident has seen her fees rise 129%.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/longtermcare/10577165/Nursing-home-billed-me-600000-for-what.html

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Freezing rain and sleet are not the same thing. Sleet refers to frozen raindrops falling from the sky; freezing rain comes down a liquid but freezes upon contact on the ground.

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