UPDATE Weekly

Not for Profit organizations, especially trade associations, rely heavily on the volunteer time of its membership. One important way to make a difference is by serving on one of NCHCFA’s committees. Members have until April 15th to volunteer to serve on one of the following committees: Standards and Ethics, Provider Relations, Education and Programs, Quality Advisory, and Payment for Services. Click here [Word] [PDF] for a description of the committees. Click here [Word] [PDF] to download form and print. Click here to access the on-line entry version.

All committee assignments are for a two-year term beginning at the time of appointment and ending February 28, 2018. Appointments are made by the Chair of NCHCFA’s Board of Directors. Only representatives from member facilities in good standing are eligible to serve. Please note that all committee meetings will be conducted by conference call (excluding Education and Programs) unless circumstances arise that require an in-person meeting. When submitting your request, please choose more than one committee and rank selections in order of preference.

Members currently on committees will need to go through the sign-up process.

If you volunteer to serve on a committee, please make the commitment to participate. We promise to be respectful of your time and busy schedules. If you submitted this form during convention, we ask that you please complete and turn in again.

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At the end of March, the Division of Medical Assistance (DMA) had NCTracks re-process the Medicaid nursing facility claims from January 2015 to May 2015 to reconcile the retroactive case-mix freeze. It has been reported by several providers that when these claims were re-processed, the patient monthly liability was not always applied to the claims, causing an overpayment situation. NCHCFA has provided DMA with several examples of this situation. DMA is looking into this issue. NCHCFA will publish any additional information as we receive it. In the meantime, providers should be aware of this potential issue when posting the re-processed claim changes to their resident accounts.

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Over the next several weeks, beginning this weekend, NCTracks will start the re-processing of claims for Qualified Medicare Beneficiaries (QMBs). To read the full notice, click here.

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Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), announced the creation of regional Elder Justice Task Forces in 10 federal prosecutorial districts across the US. Those 10 districts are: Northern District of CA, Northern District of GA, District of KS, Western District of KY, Northern District of IO, District of MD, Southern District of OH, Eastern District of PA, Middle District of TN and the Western District of WA. Only the counties within the 10 districts are currently impacted. According to the DOJ announcement, these Task Forces “will bring together federal, state and local prosecutors, law enforcement, and agencies that provide services to the elderly, to coordinate and enhance efforts to pursue nursing homes that provide grossly substandard care to their residents.” The full DOJ announcement is available here. AHCA/NCAL responded to the announcement, expressing concern with the comments in the DOJ press release and in a separate statement from an DOJ Assistant Attorney General. AHCA/NCAL’s response can be found here.

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The NC State Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators will offer the 2016 Preceptor Seminars on April 18-19, 2016 and April 19-20, 2016 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 2016 by the NC State Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators. THE DEADLINE IS THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 8TH! REGISTER TODAY!

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

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Alliant Quality wants to encourage SNFs to keep signing up for the National Collaborative – or SPACE. Alliant recommends having as much time as possible to get started on Quality Assurance Performance Improvement (QAPI) improvement work and improving facility quality measures in a systems approach to improve their five star and composite scores.

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.

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 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.

When ready to register, click here for the Participation Agreement and fax or e-mail it back to Lisa Klemis. For more details, e-mail Jennifer Brock at Jennifer.Brock@area-F.hcqis.org or call (678) 527-3417.

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The Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Value-Based Purchasing Program will begin in FY 2019 (October 1, 2018). Visit the updated SNF VBP Web page for information on:

• Laws and regulations
• Technical Measure Specifications
• Quarterly Reporting Feedback Cycle
• Upcoming calls and events
• Resources for SNFs

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On March 3, CMS announced the addition of new quality measures (QMs) to Nursing Home Compare (NHC) and the Five-Star Quality Rating System. The new measures are a part of the agency’s effort to track and encourage improvements in skilled nursing care centers for short-stay and long-stay patients and residents. These new additions also build on what CMS announced in February of 2015.

There are six new measures: four short-stay and two long-stay. The new short-stay measures are discharge back to the community, emergency room use, rehospitalizations, and improvement in function. Three of the four are aligned with the AHCA Quality Initiative. The new long-stay measures are decline in mobility and the use of hypnotics/anxiolytics.

What does this mean for American Health Care Association (AHCA) member centers? By the end of April, all six of the new measures will be added to NHC and accessible to the public. And in July, all but one measure – hypnotics/anxiolytics – will be added to Five-Star. CMS has not yet announced how the new QMs will impact the overall star rating.

AHCA hosted a Webinar for members on March 4 that walked through these new updates in greater detail. The recorded presentation, along with more specifics on the new measures, are available only to members on the Five-Star ahcancalED page here.

What can members do over the next few weeks to prepare for the addition of the new measures in April and in July?

1. Register for free to access members-only Five-Star resources on ahcancalED. Current resources include the March 4th AHCA Webinar, the questions and answers from that Webinar, and specifics on the new measurements. To access the resources on the site, you must 1) log in using your AHCA username and password and 2) register to download the Five-Star materials. Contact educate@ahca.org if you need any assistance.
2. Watch AHCA’s Webinar from March 4 if you have not already done so. Consider holding an all-staff meeting to watch the Webinar together.
3. Be sure your MDS coordinator is aware of the new updates. She/he will be able to access the QIES System one week before the new measures are added to NHC in April.
4. Start counting and tracking the number of residents and patients who are experiencing each of the QMs (e.g., discharge back to the community, emergency room use, rehospitalizations) by using Advancing Excellence’s free tracking tools.
5. Review and familiarize yourself with the specifics of the new measures. And don’t forget to include your staff in this process.
6. Go to AHCA’s LTC Trend Tracker(SM), a free, members-only online tool, to run your Discharge to Community and Hospitalization Rate reports. Once you have your report, look to see if you are above or below the national average to get a sense of how you are doing. Based on what you learn, set a goal to perform at least two-three points better than the average. Contact help@ltctrendtracker.com if you need any assistance.
7. Visit the AHCA Quality Initiative Website to access additional resources to improve your discharges back to the community and reduce hospital readmissions.
8. Stay tuned. AHCA will inform members of any new updates over the next few weeks.

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National Nursing Home Week® is May 8-14, 2016! AHCA’s 2016 National Nursing Home Week® (NNHW) specialty products are now available for purchase. This year’s theme with logo, It’s a Small World with a Big Heart, is featured on many of the available items. To purchase National Nursing Home week specialty products including posters, balloons, t-shirts, buttons, and more, shop on-line or call 800-321-0343.

Members are encouraged to place orders early for best product selection (color, size, and available quantities). NNHW items are very popular and will sell out. Ask about t-shirt discounts when ordering.

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NC Health Care Facilities Association will present a restorative sleep seminar on May 19th in Charlotte, NC! Sue Ann Guildermann with Empira is returning as our speaker! Don’t miss out! Brochures will be mailed next week!

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AHCA has just released its latest FAQ document regarding the mandatory Electronic Staffing Data Collection in early April. The document includes answers to common questions from members about the payroll based journal. For questions, please contact the following e-mail address.

On October 1, 2015, CMS opened registration for the voluntary period to participate in electronic submission of payroll data, including staff start and end dates (for calculating staff retention and turnover), and census data. The voluntary period from October 1, 2015 until required submission of this data beginning on July 1, 2016 is the ONLY time that providers will have the opportunity to “test” the process and determine how their payroll system interfaces with the Payroll-Based Journal.

The Affordable Care Act requires CMS to collect electronic staffing data from nursing centers. The Act requires this data to be auditable and verifiable. The information is intended to collect direct care staff (employed and contracted), employee turnover and tenure, and must include census data and case mix. Earlier this year, CMS announced they would require this information to be submitted by all nursing centers starting in July 2016.

When the required submission process begins, CMS will continue to require providers to submit Forms CMS 671 & CMS 672 at the time of survey. The data from these Forms will be used in calculating the Staffing Domain of the Five Star Rating System until late 2017 or early 2018.

All of the materials including the webinar, handouts and other useful resources can be found on ahcancalEd at https://educate.ahcancal.org/products/resources-for-mandatory-electronic-staffing-data-collection-pbj

To view all of the materials be sure to log in and then, register for the product.

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Bernie Dana draws on his 28 years of experience as an executive and consultant, his academic training and research in quality management, and his involvement in the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award program in developing this practical guide to creating a quality management system in your organization. He begins with the crucial role of leadership and the basics of quality that will enable leaders and supervisors to shift from the inspection-oriented and crisis management thinking that is often embedded in long term care. He then provides practical guidelines for developing six essential elements of a quality management system that will be the foundation for continuous performance improvement. This new edition provides a step-by-step process for developing a long-range plan and creating and using a balanced scorecard of key measures to assess organizational performance. This is a companion book to Continuous Quality Improvement.

To order, visit http://www.AHCApublications.org or call (800) 321-0343. Fax orders may also be placed at (800) 869-5605.

Product #6816
AHCA MEMBERS $34.95

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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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Mindfulness At Work: 5 Tricks For A Healthier, Less Stressful Work Day

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/mindfulness-at-work_n_3475045.html

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The scientific name for the tree that chocolate comes from, Theobroma cacao, means “food of the gods.”

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