UPDATE Weekly

Yesterday, the House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bipartisan permanent fix to the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR). The bill, H.R. 2, would remove the seemingly constant threat of providers paying for a “doc fix” and inject much-needed stability for the long term and post-acute care sector.

Although the bill does contain a cut for skilled nursing facilities, it is believed that this legislation does much more good than harm. The promise of payment stability in the sector, as well as much-needed therapy reforms, means this is landmark legislation for our membership. AHCA’s Board of Governors endorses this effort to permanently fix the SGR.

What’s in it?

• Stability – A permanent fix to the annual SGR battle.
• Therapy reforms – The bill includes a 33-month extension of the therapy cap exceptions process (through December 31, 2017). This allows providers to continue delivering therapy above the current $1,940 threshold as long as supporting coding and documentation show the services were medically necessary.
The legislation also mandates a new therapy review process to take the place of current manual medical review (MMR). The new structure will be in place within 90 days of enactment of the bill. It will target providers with high denial rates and outlier billing patterns as well as new providers, certain medical conditions, and certain group practices.
The new system is limited to $10 million in funding across all provider settings for FY 2015-2016, which will substantially limit the regulatory burden on skilled nursing therapy services.
• 1 Percent Market-Basket Update – Skilled nursing is part of the pay-for in this bill. AHCA staff worked closely with Congressional leadership to ensure that this cut is not an unbearable burden for our members. Under the proposal, skilled nursing providers will receive a 1 percent market basket increase, net of other adjustments, in FY 2018.

This legislation is expected to reach the House floor for passage as early as Thursday. Right now, it appears that there is enough bipartisan support to send it to the Senate. Speaker of the House John Boehner released a statement today applauding the effort to permanently fix the SGR. He also stated the House would not attempt to pass another short-term patch, ratcheting up the pressure on the other chamber to take what the House has approved.

The Senate must pass a budget on Thursday night in an hours-long affair known as the “vote-o-rama.” This is a time-consuming and tiring process for all involved. The Senate would then have to vote on an SGR repeal early Friday morning before a two-week-long holiday recess.

Because of these timing issues, it is significantly less likely the Senate will be able to send this legislation to the president’s desk this week, but there is a chance they will. If they do not, however, they will either have to vote on a short-term fix to send to the House or allow CMS to hold claims while they recess.

If you have a strong relationship with your Representative, contact them and tell them to support H.R. 2. AHCA has developed talking points to help with your outreach. Time is of the essence and your support is needed.

Following Thursday’s anticipated House vote, AHCA will provide additional information regarding continued outreach to your Senators.

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Change Request (CR) 8997 updates sections of the ‘Medicare Benefit Policy Manual’ and the ‘Medicare Claims Processing Manual’ in regards to SNF policy and billing. If you provide services to Medicare beneficiaries in a SNF stay, information in CR8997 could impact your payments. Make sure your staff is aware.

Click here to read the MLN Matters article on these changes.

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We are excited about the number of nursing homes that have decided to participate in the Alliant Quality National Nursing Home Quality Care Collaborative (NNHQCC). Alliant Quality would like to invite each of you to attend a brief (30-minute) informational session in April. If you have not already completed a participation agreement and do not want to be left out, please complete the agreement and return to nancy.fendler@alliantquality.org.

WEBINAR TOPICS:

• Overview of the SPACE Collaborative
• Performance Improvement Project Goal Selection
• Upcoming SPACE Educational Topics
• QAPI Self-Assessment Tool

Thank you for your commitment to improving healthcare quality and the lives of residents in nursing homes in North Carolina.

There are four Opportunities, please click on the dates below to register.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

• 10:30 am – 11:00 am
• 2:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Thursday, April 16, 2015

• 10:30 am – 11:00 am
• 2:00 pm – 2:30 pm

ABOUT ALLIANT QUALITY
Alliant Quality is the Medicare Quality Innovation Network (QIN)-Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for North Carolina. Under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Alliant Quality invites your nursing home to participate in a collaborative designed to ensure that every nursing home resident receives the highest quality of care. Specifically, the Nursing Home Quality Care Collaborative (NNHQCC) will strive to instill quality and performance improvement practices, eliminate healthcare acquired conditions, and dramatically improve resident satisfaction.

The Collaborative offers an exciting opportunity to learn from high performing nursing homes regarding their processes as they pertain to consistent/permanent staff assignment, teamwork and communications, leadership, regulatory compliance, clinical models, and quality of life indicators. The Collaborative aligns national nursing home quality initiatives and partnerships such as the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes Campaign, The Partnership to Improve Dementia Care, and Quality Assurance Performance Improvement (QAPI). Targeted focus areas will include increasing mobility, decreasing unnecessary use of antipsychotics in residents with dementia, decreasing potentially avoidable hospitalizations and decreasing healthcare acquired infections and conditions.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND
Participants in the Alliant Quality National Nursing Home Quality Care Collaborative (NNHQCC) ~ Southern Partners Action Collaborative for Excellence (SPACE)

If you are ready to register, click here for the Participation Agreement and fax or e-mail it back to Nancy Fendler. For more details, e-mail Nancy at nancy.fendler@alliantquality.org or reach her at (678) 527-3679.

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The Five Star reports have been updated in AHCA’s LTC Trend Tracker to reflect the recent CMS changes. These reports include the Five Star Overall, as well as the predictor reports – Five Star Quality Measure (QM) Report and Five Star Staffing Report. The Rating Predictor features allow users to see how potential changes can impact a center’s Five Star QM Rating and Staffing Rating.

Two Webinars will be offered by AHCA for members interested in learning how to use the new reports. Please click on the dates below to register.

• March 26 – 2pm ET
• April 2 – 2pm ET

Login today at http://www.ltctrendtracker.com. Please e-mail help@ltctrendtracker.com with any questions or for additional assistance.

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The second ICD-10 Provider Readiness Survey was sent to all providers last week. As noted previously, in an effort to gauge progress in provider preparedness, the survey is being sent to providers every 2-3 months as we near the October 1st implementation deadline. NCTracks would like to have the brief, eight-question survey completed before 6:00 p.m. on Friday, March 27th. If you did not receive instructions for participation in the survey, you can access the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FHHV3JG.

NCTracks encourages providers to sign up for the NCTracks e-mail listserv at https://www.nctracks.nc.gov/content/public/providers/provider-communications.html.

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Registration is now open for several instructor-led training courses for providers that will be held in April 2015, including several specifically designed for institutional providers. Details on the courses, including the dates, times and enrollment instructions can be found by clicking here.

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The NC State Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators will offer the 2015 Preceptor Seminars on April 20-21, 2015 and April 21-22, 2015 at the Kingston Plantation, Myrtle Beach, SC. You will need to choose the first seminar dates for Renewal Preceptor certification and the second seminar dates for Initial Preceptor Certification and Continuing Education Only. The seminars will be open to all nursing home administrators seeking continuing education credits and/or preceptor certification. This is the only Preceptor Seminar being planned for 2015 by the NC State Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators.

Click here to download more information along with the registration form.

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“Bring on the Fiesta!” is this year’s theme for National Nursing Home Week! Speak the language of Familia, Vida and Amor during National Nursing Home Week 2015! Imagine an event that brings the long-term care (LTC) community of residents, rehab patients, families and care center staff together for a weeklong festival in 2015. Think of all the fun your LTC community can have, which is precisely why the American Health Care Association (AHCA) will designate National Nursing Home Week (NNHW) as “Bring on the Fiesta!” week. Visit AHCA’s on-line store to view the colorful and fun product line for this special week! (Don’t wait until the last minute! National Nursing Home Week products are very popular and will sell out quickly!) National Nursing Home Week is May 10-17, 2015!

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This book will show you the true financial consequences of unchecked resident readmission and provide you with the tools to do something about it! It delivers several practical strategies your facility can employ, such as enhanced resident assessment and documentation policies, provider partnerships that improve transitions of care, staff education tools, and methods to achieve resident and staff involvement. You’ll learn how to ensure smooth care transitions through resident education and effective communication with staff and other care providers, reduce costs associated with re-hospitalizations, and maintain or improve the resident’s quality of life.

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

Product #8238
AHCA MEMBERS $129.00

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This DVD, 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 may be reproduced. To order, e-mail your request to Karen Lennon at karenl@nchcfa.org. The price is $35.00 (tax and shipping included).

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Providers Plug In To Health Tech Networks – Sharing data electronically means that caregivers could have access to patient information in 10 minutes rather than 10 hours.

http://www.providermagazine.com/archives/2015_Archives/Pages/0315/Providers-Plug-In-To-Health-Tech-Networks.aspx

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Researchers claim that camping can help reset one’s body clock and synchronizes melatonin hormones with sunrise and sunset.

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