The
American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL)
recently announced new goals as part of its multi-year initiative to further
improve quality in long term and post-acute care. At its National Quality Summit in New Orleans
this month, the Association challenged both skilled nursing and assisted living
providers to meet measurable targets in four areas, respectively, by March
2021. The nationwide effort builds on
the progress achieved by the profession over the last six years. The full article on the new quality goals can
be found here.
AHCA has announced new three-year goals as part of its nationwide,
multi-year initiative to further improve quality in long term and post-acute
care centers. Since the launch of the
Initiative in 2012, members have been challenged to meet measurable targets in
key areas such as hospitalizations and antipsychotic usage. While significant
improvements have been made, more must be done.
The next phase of the effort continues to challenge providers to achieve
quantitative results in four areas by March 2021. This webinar will provide an overview of
progress to date, outline the new goal areas and review strategies and
resources to help members achieve the Quality Initiative goals. You can register here for this webinar event.
Beginning
in April, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will be mailing all Medicare beneficiaries new Medicare cards that remove their social security
numbers. The change is intended to
prevent fraud and identity theft. CMS
will be mailing the new cards in waves between April and June 2018, with more
details on the timing here. CMS has created an informational page for providers explaining what they need to
do to get ready.
The
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG),
Administration for Community Living, and Office for Civil Rights released a January
2018 joint report entitled, Ensuring
Beneficiary Health and Safety in Group Homes Through State Implementation of
Comprehensive Compliance Oversight. The objective of OIG for the
report was to determine if group homes complied with Federal and State
requirements for reporting, recording, and detecting critical incidents in
group homes. Work was done in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and
Maine. According to the report, “OIG found serious lapses in basic
health and safety practices in group homes.” OIG will continue their
audit work in this area in additional States. You can read the findings
and conclusions of the full report here.
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.
Holly Jarek, AHCA's
ID/DD Committee Chair, encourages AHCA's ID/DD providers to participate in our
grassroots advocacy efforts in 2018.
AHCA would like to help you get facility tours and in-district meetings
set up over future recess days. Please
provide your name, facility address, and email address and we will craft the
invite and send it to you to send to the Congressional office. The four
brief steps for a successful facility tour visit can be found here. Please feel free to contact Matthew Smyth and Dana Halvorson who can help you
with all of the logistics.
AHCA’s ID/DD
Committee members, Renee Naylor (pictured to the left) and Kelly Head-Halladay
(pictured to the right), met with Representative Kurt Schrader (D-OR-5), during
AHCA’s ID/DD Residential Services Providers annual Hill Fly-In event.
As
you are planning your visits with members of Congress and their staff in
Washington, D.C., or in your district, the Congressional calendars will be of
assistance to you. The U.S. House of
Representatives calendar for the 115th Congress, second session,
can be found here.
The U.S. Senate schedule for 2018 can be found here.
