UPDATE Weekly

Make plans today to join your colleagues for the third annual NCHCFA Summer Symposium August 5-7, 2014 at the Embassy Suites Resort at Kingston Plantation, Myrtle Beach, SC.

Do not miss Long Term Care Legal Landscape on Wednesday, August 6th. Join attorneys Ken Burgess and Elizabeth Johnson for the most pertinent legal matters affecting long term care. Ken will provide an update on numerous topics including; new use of directed Plans of Correction (POC), Immediate Jeopardies (IJ’s), noncompliance issues, 30-day discharge payments, and more. In addition, Ken and Elizabeth will discuss Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) surveys. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has recently begun focusing on privacy and security violations under HIPAA and other state and federal laws during surveys, and issuing burdensome directed plans of correction in response to alleged violations. This session will examine CMS’s recent activity on this issue, outline the risks for all long term care providers and offer some practical preventive measures you can take to minimize your risk of exposure under federal privacy and security laws, and during CMS surveys. You cannot afford to miss this informative program!

Call the Embassy Suites Resort at (800) 876-0010 to reserve your overnight room. Use group code “NHF” to identify yourself as a NC Health Care Facilities Association Convention attendee! To make your reservation on-line, visit http://tinyurl.com/2014symposiumreserve. Please note that when our room block is full, rooms will be on a first come, first served basis at prevailing published rates.

To view the 2014 Third Annual Summer Symposium schedule at a glance, click here!

Please call the Association office at (919) 782-3827 with any questions. Brochures will be available soon!

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Register today for the North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association’s “TRANSFORMING DECISION MAKING AT LIFE’S END: FROM FEARFUL TO FULFILLING.” Since the N.C. General Assembly modified North Carolina law governing advance directives and end of life choices in 2006, the state’s long-term care providers have wrestled with these revised laws, and with the policies and ethics behind them. This program will provide an overview of the ethical and legal backdrop to North Carolina’s end of life laws; a review of the legal and regulatory standards governing residents’ rights and providers’ responsibilities related to end of life health care choices; and tips on how to have discussions about end of life choices with residents and families. The program will include an exploration of common challenges faced by long-term care providers in understanding and implementing residents’ end of life choices; dealing with related family dynamics; regulatory expectations of the Division of Health Service Regulation and CMS; and practical tips for best outcomes for end of life issues.

We have assembled some of the most knowledgeable speakers from which to learn rules and laws, gain awareness from research, evidence and human experience, and to hear about your most frequent and complex interactions while providing care. NCHCFA is proud to offer this educational opportunity in our continuing commitment to compassionately, and knowledgeably navigate, one of the most meaningful and challenging transitions of life. Visit our Web site http://www.NursingHomesNC.com to register on-line OR download and print the registration form to fax!

This seminar is scheduled for July 15, 2014 at the following location:

Embassy Suites Greensboro
204 Centreport Drive
Greensboro, NC 27409

Call the Embassy Suites at (336) 668-4535 to make your overnight room reservations! Use code NCHCFA to get our special group rate! Unused rooms will be released after June 24th!

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CSC will observe the Independence Day holiday on Friday, July 4, 2014. The NCTracks Call Center will be closed on that day, but the Pharmacy Prior Approval Unit will be available from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Also, in keeping with the posted checkwrite schedules, the last checkwrite in June will be June 24 and the first checkwrite in July will be July 8. Due to the State Fiscal Year End, there will be no checkwrite on July 1.

The 2014 checkwrite schedules can be found under the Quick Links on the Provider Portal home page at https://www.nctracks.nc.gov/content/public/providers.html.

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced the establishment of a Provider Relations Coordinator to help increase program transparency and offer more efficient resolutions to providers affected by the medical review process (here).

The Provider Relations Coordinator’s purpose is to improve communication between providers and CMS. While providers should continue to take questions about specific claims directly to the Recovery Auditor or Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) who conducted the review, providers can raise larger process issues to the Coordinator. For example, if a provider believes that a Recovery Auditor is failing to comply with the documentation request limits or has a pattern of not issuing review results letters in a timely manner, CMS encourages providers to contact the Provider Relations Coordinator. Prior to the establishment of this new CMS initiative, AHCA members often contacted AHCA staff to help facilitate an escalation of their medical review issues with CMS. Hopefully this new process will help streamline the resolution of such issues.

CMS indicted that providers can also send suggestions about how to improve the Recovery Auditor or MAC medical review process to the CMS Provider Relations Coordinator.

The CMS Provider Relations Coordinator is Latesha Walker, and she can be contacted at:

• RAC@cms.hhs.gov (for Recovery Auditor review process concerns/suggestions)
• MedicareMedicalReview@cms.hhs.gov (for MAC review process concerns/suggestions)

If you have any questions or are not satisfied with CMS follow-up when using this new process, please contact Dianne De La Mare or Dan Ciolek at AHCA.

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Please plan to join your friends and colleagues in beautiful Pinehurst, North Carolina, on September 17th and 18th for the Third Annual Autumn Classic Golf Tournament. The event will begin on Wednesday evening with a reception, dinner and program held at the world famous Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club. The Pinehurst Autumn Classic is being sponsored by the NC Health Care Facilities Association to benefit our political action committee (PAC).

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The 65th Annual AHCA/NCAL Convention & Expo registration is OPEN! This year’s convention will offer you the opportunity to deepen your professional knowledge, network with colleagues from across the country, spend time in the Expo Hall discovering new business solutions, and even rock out a little. This is the must-attend event for long term and post-acute care professionals.

AHCA/NCAL Gala Dinner & Show to Feature Pat Benatar and Neil “Spyder” Giraldo
During the AHCA/NCAL Convention & Expo, be sure to make your plans to stay for this year’s Gala Dinner and Show, featuring rock and roll stars Pat Benatar and Neil “Spyder” Giraldo. The Gala is an opportunity to celebrate, network with new friends, and have an evening full of fun!

Pat Benatar has always been a rule breaker and a trailblazer. After three decades of rock ‘n’ roll, she’s a bonafide living legend. Neil “Spyder” Giraldo’s vision and steel-bending guitar playing has helped his wife Pat shape her signature sound. Together, they promise a show you will remember for a long, long time. Enjoy such hits as “Love is a Battlefield,” “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Heartbreaker,” “Promises in the Dark,” and “We Belong.”

The performance by Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo is a separate ticketed event, and tickets will go fast. Please plan ahead and make sure you’re a part of this memorable evening!

Early bird registration for this year’s AHCA/NCAL Convention & Expo continues through July 18. Register today for the maximum savings.

For information or to register, visit http://www.AHCAconvention.org.

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How can you measure the effectiveness of quality improvement efforts? Read this book and find out! Chapters cover preparing to collect data, data collection, understanding variation, run and control charts, control chart case studies, developing improvement strategies, and using patient surveys for CQI. An appendix shows five ways to calculate control limits.

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

Product #6912
AHCA MEMBERS $58.00

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This DVD titled Mobility and Safe Movement of the Elderly, Improving Your Skills to Prevent Injuries and Reduce Falls, by Teepa Snow, MS, OTR/L., FOTA, Dementia Care & Training Specialist was developed in conjunction with Wake Allied Health Education Center, Durham Technical Community College and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Office of Information Systems. The content is formatted in separate segments in order to customize the delivery of content to your learning objective. Handouts, developed by Teepa, accompany each video and can be reproduced. To order, contact Jan Williams at janw@nchcfa.org. The price is $35.00 (tax and shipping included).

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Reliving a proud moment of the past. Click here to see more.

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Horseshoe crabs are often called “living fossils” because fossils of their ancestors date back almost 450 million years, 200 million years before dinosaurs existed.

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