Thursday, January 11, 2018
AHCA’s ID/DD Hill Fly-in Event Date Set – Mark Your Calendars!
2018 AHCA/NCAL Quality Summit in New Orleans
The Quality Summit offers education that focuses on quality improvement, or other critical areas that impact organizational performance and resident care. The Quality Summit is ideal for skilled nursing, post-acute, and assisted living professionals!
Check out the education sessions, events and sponsors online. You can also download a copy of this year’s Quality Summit invitation. Don’t miss these important dates and register today.
Long Term Care and the Law Program February 28-March 2, 2018
Consider
attending the Long Term Care and the Law program February 28-March 2, 2018 in
New Orleans, LA. This program is an exciting and informative meeting where some
of the leading in-house and outside lawyers for the long term care industry
will be presenting on legal, compliance, and operational issues faced by
providers. The morning of February 28, the National Center for Assisted Living
will host a round table open to all assisted living in-house counsel; this year
the event will focus on emergency preparedness. The American Health Lawyers
Association (AHLA) offers CLE, CPE, NHA, and CCB credits for the conference.
AHCA and NCAL members receive the AHLA member discounted rate of $865. Don’t
miss this excellent educational opportunity. https://shar.es/1M0J3R
U.S. Congress Passes RAISE Family Caregivers Act
This legislation, which AHCA/NCAL supports, would implement the federal Commission on Long-Term Care’s bipartisan recommendation that Congress require the development of a strategy to support family caregivers. The bill would create an advisory body to bring together representatives from the private and public sectors to advise and make recommendations. The strategy would identify recommended actions that communities, providers, government, and others are taking and may take to recognize and support family caregivers and be updated biennially. The U.S. House of Representatives version of this bill is The RAISE Family Caregivers Act - H.R. 3759. Before the holidays, the House passed H.R. 3759 with a minor modification around the bill’s sunset date. On, January 8, 2018, the full U.S. Senate passed the bill. It now goes to the U.S. President to be signed into law.
AARP notes that about 40 million
family caregivers provide about $470 billion annually in unpaid care to their
loved ones. According to the Caregiving in the U.S. 2015 study from the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, about
3.7 million family caregivers provide care to a child under age 18 because of a
medical, behavioral, or other condition or disability, and 6.5 million family
caregivers assist both adults and children.
ICF/IID Reports
AHCA's Research Department has released
the following June 2017 updates for use by AHCA/NCAL members:
If you have any questions relating to
these reports, which include important ICF/IID state and national data, please
contact AHCA’s
Senior Research Analyst, Kiran Sreenivas.
Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Grassroots Advocacy – Facility Visits Over Recess
U.S. Congressional Calendars
AHCA/NCAL Advocacy App
If you
haven’t already heard about it, then we wanted to alert you to a great app that
allows you to keep abreast of AHCA advocacy efforts. Among other things, it provides important
talking points, issue briefs and features that allow you to take action. It will be useful not only to you, but serves
as a great way for providers to weigh in.
You can get the app by clicking on the appropriate black box below.
Download our
advocacy app!
VOR Corner
VOR's 2018 Annual Meeting and Legislative Initiative will take place from June 9 - 13, at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. The Annual Meeting (June 9-10) will include State of the State Reports, presentation of new officers and Board members, and reports from the President and Excutive Director. Speakers to be announced. The Legislative Agenda (June 10 - 13) will include protecting Medicaid among other issues. For more information, contact info@vor.net or call us toll-free at 877-399-4867.
2018 DDNA Conference
As
the premier resource for practicing I/DD nurses, DDNA is committed to providing
quality education programs that include cutting edge content with practical
application. For more information about
the DDNA or to become a member, visit their website at: DDNA.org.
We’ve Got You Covered! AHCA/NCAL Insurance Solutions Website
The program offers health insurance options, group and voluntary benefit packages, an aggressive Stop-Loss insurance program as well as cloud based HR platforms that will help members achieve savings and greater efficiencies on HR services within your company, while also tracking and reporting on key Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements. For more information, please contact AHCA’s Dave Kyllo at dkyllo@AHCA.org and visit the AHCA/NCAL Insurance Solutions website.
AHCA’s State of the States Clearinghouse
This resource provides valuable data, including:
-
Overview of the demographic landscape;
- State-specific nursing center occupancy and ownership breakouts;
- Certificate of Need requirements for nursing centers and state licensure requirements;
- State data on the cost of care for long term services and supports;
- State data on the total number of Medicare enrollees;
- Data on state Medicare Advantage plan enrollees and comparisons to the national average;
- State and national Medicaid expenditure data;
- State Medicaid rates, costs and shortfalls;
- And other significant state-specific data related to payment structure, managed long term services and home and community based services coverage.
Articles and Resources of Interest
-
National Quality Award Application Portal Reminder and Application Tips – longtermcareleader.com
- “Wow” Your Next Survey Team with an Emergency Preparedness Program That Crosswalks to the CMS Guidelines – longtermcareleader.com
- HealthCap Risk Managers Discuss the Importance of Restorative Nursing – longtermcareleader.com
- Prenatal Vitamins May Lessen Autism Risk – disabilityscoop.com
- Why ABA Therapy Remains Elusive For Some Families – disabilityscoop.com
Legislative and Agency Corner
-
Hill Leaders Plot Spending Future – longtermcareleader.com
- Senate Committee Holds Confirmation Hearing for HHS Secretary Nominee – longtermcareleader.com
- Long Term and Post-Acute Care Providers Earn Quality Improvement Recognition – ahcancal.org
- ‘Celebrating Life’s Stories’ Selected as 2018 Theme for National Skilled Nursing Care Week – ahcancal.org
- Long Term Care Profession Opposes Elimination of Private Activity Bonds in Tax Proposal – ahcancal.org
- Tax Law Brings ABLE Changes, Future Worries – disabilityscoop.com
AHCA/NCAL Learning Management Website
"We created ahcancalED for our members who do not have the time or budget to develop the newest in-service training," said Dr. David Gifford, AHCA/NCAL Senior Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs. "Our objective also was to provide the best and latest educational tools, especially as CMS increases its regulatory requirements about staff training and competency in a number of areas. ahcancalED is designed to help individuals in our profession do a better job of caring for patients and residents and advance in their careers."
The information on ahcancalED is structured to make the online learning experience engaging, meaningful, and interactive for users. The fresh graphics and clearly defined sections within the site make it easy for users to navigate and find the information they need. The site also allows users to track their own learning progress.
Teams of experts from around the country working with AHCA/NCAL staff helped to create the content. "We will constantly be adding new programs and materials so that we can keep the site fresh and dynamic," said Gifford. "We'll continue to look for new ways the site can grow and serve our members. It's a great value-added benefit and a tangible example of our commitment to enhancing quality."
ahcancalED can be accessed at https://educate.ahcancal.org/. Suggestions for content or other site enhancements can be submitted to the ahcancalED team at educate@ahca.org. AHCA/NCAL welcomes ideas that will help improve quality and strengthen the knowledge, skills and attitudes of staff in the long term and post-acute care community.
Webinars of Interest
Stay informed and tune in to ahcancalED for several
pre-recorded and live webinars on topics impacting the long-term care
profession. Webinars that might be of interest are noted below.
From the Blog of Josh Linkner
Read some of Linkner’s blogs below. In addition, you can view some of his keynote speaking addresses here.
National Association of States United for Aging and Disabilities
The National Association of States
United for Aging and Disabilities (NASUAD) holds a monthly call or webinar
concerning topics of interest to those who work in the field of aging and
disability. One of the past calls focused on resources
for people with Alzheimer’s and related dementias and their caregivers. Information about
future calls, and audio recording of previous ones, can be found here.
Upcoming 2018 Events
-
AHCA’S ID/DD Hill Fly-In Event (please contact Dana Halvorson at dhalvorson@ahca.org for more details) – March 7, 2018
- AHCA/NCAL Quality Summit in New Orleans – March 12 – 14, 2018
- AHCA/NCAL Independent Owner Leadership Conference in New Orleans – March 14 – 16, 2018
2018 Health Care Observances
February 2018 marks, among other
observances, American Heart
Month,
National Cancer
Prevention Month,
National Senior
Independence Month
and AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month. The 2018 Healthcare Observances Calendar can
be found here.
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