UPDATE Weekly

On December 23, 2015, CMS announced a new Infection Control pilot project utilizing funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to CMS, this is a 3-year project to improve the regulatory process related to assessment and prevention of infection in nursing homes, hospitals, and during transitions of care. All surveys conducted as a part of the pilot will be educational (with no citations issued) and conducted by a national contractor. New surveyor tools and processes will be developed and tested, focusing on existing regulations as well as recommended practices (such as those for antibiotic stewardship and transitions of care). Ten pilot surveys will be conducted in Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 and will occur in nursing homes. Surveys in FY17 and FY18 will be conducted in nursing homes and hospitals.

You can access the S&C memo here. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Provider-Enrollment-and-Certification/SurveyCertificationGenInfo/Downloads/Survey-and-Cert-Letter-16-05.pdf

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Thank you to all members that already submitted photographs and information to help celebrate NCHCFA’s 60th Anniversary throughout 2015. The Association is also creating a brief video commemorating NCHCFA’s history since 1955. The video will be shown at the Annual Business Meeting on Monday, February 22nd during the 2016 Annual Convention & Expo. If you have any historically significant photographs you would like to be considered for the video please submit them today! The deadline to submit photographs is Friday, January 15th.

Please send photographs to:

NCHCFA
Attn: Allison Boyette
5109 Bur Oak Circle
Raleigh, NC 27612
allisonb@nchcfa.org

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Register today for the NCHCFA Annual Convention and Trade Show, The Art of Caring, February 21-24, 2016 at the Sheraton Greensboro Hotel at Four Seasons/Joseph S. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, NC! Call the Sheraton at (800) 242-6556 to make your room reservation. Identify that you are with “NC Health Care Facilities Association 2016 Convention” to receive the group discounted rate. Don’t miss the opportunity to earn up to 15.5 hours of educational credit for North Carolina Nursing Home Administrators, as well as up to 14.5 hours of Nursing CE credit! The advanced registration deadline is Friday, February 5th. To obtain an additional brochure visit the Member Center of the Association’s Web site at http://www.NursingHomesNC.com.

Chair Kevin Cox and the NCHCFA Board of Directors invite you to West 54th Street in Manhattan for a night of fun at “Studio 54” on Monday, February 22 at the Chairman’s Evening Extravaganza-A Night at Studio 54. Join your colleagues in the Sheraton’s old Club 5th Season for a night of glitz and glamour at the legendary New York nightclub that defined the disco era. It was “the place” for the rich and famous to be seen in the late 1970’s! There will be plenty of “pop art”, food, and entertainment by the band Liquid Pleasure.

Disco anyone? Pull out your bell-bottoms and get ready for three straight hours of mesmerizing choreography! For more than two decades Liquid Pleasure has been bringing audiences to their feet. The Liquid Pleasure Super Show includes its six amazing original band members, three additional female vocalists, and an entire horn section. The band will play all the greatest tunes from your favorite decade.

Come dressed as one of the regulars from Studio 54’s past such as Andy Warhol, Cher, Mick Jagger, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, or Elizabeth Taylor. A photographer will be on hand and great prizes will be awarded for the best dressed male and female. Heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served. Register today so the doormen will let you past the legendary velvet ropes!

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The North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association would like to thank our 2016 Gold Convention Hosts for supporting the upcoming Annual Convention & Expo – The Art of Caring. Be sure to visit Blue Ridge Pharmacy at booths 531 & 632 and Southern Pharmacy at booths 501 & 503 on Tuesday, February 23rd during Expo 2016 – The Art of Patriotism.

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One of the benefits of being a member of the American Health Care Association (AHCA) is their daily e-mail publication, Provider Daily. Provider Daily is a daily compilation of state and national news designed to keep members abreast of developments impacting long term care professionals.

Providers do not automatically receive Provider Daily, but can request to receive it by sending an e-mail request to Katherine Merullo at kmerullo@ahca.org.

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Election of officers and members of the Board of Directors will be conducted on Monday, February 22nd, during NCHCFA’s Business Meeting. The business meeting will be held in conjunction with NCHCFA’s 2016 annual Convention in Greensboro. All persons seeking an office or a position on the Board of Directors should have their name submitted to the Nominating Committee by Friday, February 12th. The nomination must be submitted in writing or e-mailed and include the candidate’s full name, the office being sought and the facility or company of employment. Please mail or e-mail the information to the attention of:

By Mail:

Nominating Committee
North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association
5109 Bur Oak Circle
Raleigh, NC 27612

By Email:

Karen Lennon, NCHCFA, karenl@nchcfa.org

Nominating Committee: David Kidder (Chair), Cheryl Clapp-Coleman and Kevin Cox.

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Each quarter, the Fiscal Intermediary Shared System (FISS) is updated to include new logic for claims processing, pricing, etc. When the release is installed, Palmetto GBA places a temporary ‘hold’ to ensure the release is installed properly. During this time, claims with dates of service of January 2016, or later will be held. Claims will be released on or about January 18, 2016, to continue processing. Please share with appropriate staff.

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It’s the New Year and there is no better way to start it off than by attending the AHCA/NCAL Inaugural Quality Summit. The Quality Summit will be held February 9-11 in San Antonio, but the registration deadline of January 12 is approaching fast.

The new Quality Summit, now combines the AHCA/NCAL Quality Symposium and the NCAL Spring Conference to create this powerful, must-attend event. This merger makes it even easier for you to enjoy top-notch speakers, priceless networking opportunities with your peers, and relevant training on key quality improvement topics that will ensure you reach your personal and professional quality goals. The summit offers a broad spectrum of programming designed for quality practitioners at all levels and in all long term care settings.

This year’s LED (Lead, Engage, Discover) Talks have been finalized and feature six, 18-minute presentations. Check out the topics and speakers on-line.

Visit the AHCA/NCAL Quality Summit Website for education sessions/speakers, schedule, networking opportunities, travel information, and event sponsors. Remember, the registration deadline is January 12.

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Change Request (CR) 9448 describes the amounts and the policy for outpatient therapy caps for CY 2016. For physical therapy and speech-language pathology combined, the 2016 therapy cap will be $1,960. For occupational therapy, the cap for 2016 will be $1,960. Please make sure your billing staffs are aware of these updates.

For more information on the therapy caps and other issues related to outpatient therapy services, please see the Therapy Services Web page at https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Billing/TherapyServices/index.html on the CMS Web site.

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In adherence to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Informational Bulletin, Payment of Medicare Cost Sharing for Qualified Medicare Beneficiaries (QMBs), dated June 7, 2013, Medicaid is legally obligated to reimburse providers for cost-sharing that is due for a QMB according to the state’s CMS-approved Medicare cost-sharing payment methodology.

As previously communicated in the September 2015 Medicaid Bulletin, the NC Division of Medical Assistance (DMA) will be executing the next step of its corrective actions to align the processing of Medicare claims for services rendered to QMB recipients with CMS’ guidance. On November 1, 2015, DMA initiated the second step of the corrective action plan to activate the CMS-approved Medicare cost-sharing payment methodology within NCTracks to process claims for services rendered to QMB recipients from November 1, 2015 forward. It did so by paying the Medicare cost share of non-Medicaid covered Medicare services and “lesser of” logic for services covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

DMA will continue with step three of the plan by performing claims reprocessing, and thereby correcting overpayments and underpayments. This action is projected to begin no earlier than late January 2016. This action will apply the same CMS-approved Medicare cost-sharing payment methodology within NCTracks to claims with services rendered to QMB recipients dating between July 1, 2013 and February 28, 2015. Corrective actions within step three of the plan will continue to reprocess all crossover claims from March 1, 2015 through November 2, 2015 applying the same Medicare cost-sharing payment methodology.

As these and future key milestone dates approach, DMA and NCTracks will inform providers of the impending changes and claims reprocessing efforts. If you have any questions regarding this process, call DMA Provider Reimbursement at (919) 814-0060.

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Palmetto GBA will host the JM Part A Ask the Contractor Teleconference (ACT) on January 21, 2016, from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM ET. This call is intended for Part A providers billing for services rendered in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. The ACT call is designed to open the communication channels between Palmetto GBA and the Jurisdiction M Part A provider community.

To participate on the call, dial (877) 789-3907 and reference confirmation code 70010763. You are encouraged to submit questions prior to the call. Just fill out the ACT Request for Inquiry Items form located in the Forms Web page. This form may be sent via fax to (803) 935-0140 addressed to JM Part A Ask-the-Contractor Teleconference. All questions must be received at least five business days prior to the teleconference. To help ensure your access to this conference call Palmetto requests that you dial in five to 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.

An Encore digital recording of this conference will be available for replay two hours after the call’s completion. The date range that the conference replay will be available is listed below. To access the recording, guests will use the Dial-In Number listed below and the Conference ID number shown above.

Encore Dial-In Number: (855) 859-2056
Encore Available Dates: January 21, 2016, 4 p.m. ET through January 23, 2016, 11:59 p.m. ET
Security Code – 31833

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Jack Jordan, presenter, is a national leader in quality improvement, patient safety, and healthcare analytics. Mr. Jordan has been employed by Henry Ford Health system for 17 years and led efforts that reduced harm and mortality. The “No Harm Campaign” at Henry Ford Health System, designed by Mr. Jordan, was awarded the 2011 Eisenberg Award. Mr. Jordan’s professional experience also includes serving as the Deputy Director of the Partnership for Patients at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), from July 2011 through July 2013, where he served as the lead subject matter expert for patient safety.

By the end of this session, the participant should be able to:

• Identify differences between research design and improvement design;
• Identify the key element of quality improvement research design; and
• Identify factors that speed the pace of change.

Event Name: BEYOND PDSA: Considerations for Designing Quality Improvement Programs
Date: January 12, 2016
Time: 11:00 am

**PRIOR TO EVENT DATE, PLEASE REGISTER USING THE FOLLOWING REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS**

Registration Instructions:

1) Click or Copy and Paste this URL to your Web browser: https://qualitynet.webex.com
2) This should bring you to the QualityNet e-University Web page
3) Locate the event you wish to register for
4) Click on Register
5) Enter requested data
6) Click Submit
7) Once approved, you will receive a confirmation email with the meeting information and the registration ID that will be used to log into the WebEx portion of the meeting. Please note, this email may go to your spam or junk folder. It will come from the email address messenger@webex.com.

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This book covers 28 challenging cases that cover pivotal issues that most health care administrators and managers are likely to encounter at some point in their work – quality improvement, strategic planning, ethical dilemmas, organizational dynamics, cost-benefit analyses, resource utilization, and more. Providing an exceptional framework for decision-making and debate, Cases in Health Services Management is an outstanding casebook that provokes thought and discussion.

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

Product # 8248
AHCA Members (on-line price) $64.95

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If you missed Upcoming Hospice Regulations seminar, the notebook/presentation is now available for purchase. To order, e-mail your request to Donna Snyder at donnas@nchcfa.org. The cost is $25 plus tax and shipping.

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Your next resident could be a senior…in college

http://www.mcknights.com/daily-editors-notes/your-next-resident-could-be-a-senior-in-college/article/462933/

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The Empire State Building’s 102nd Floor Observatory was originally planned as a check-in area for airships docked at the tower.

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