November 4, 2024

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The Latest News

CMS Issues Final Rule Impacting Nursing Home NHSN Reporting Starting January 1, 2025

Late Friday, Nov. 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Calendar Year 2025 Home Health Prospective Payment System Rate Update, which includes significant changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) reporting requirements for nursing homes.

Beginning on January 1, 2025, nursing homes will be required to electronically report information about COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). This will replace the current nursing home COVID-19 reporting requirements to NHSN that are set to sunset on December 31, 2024.

AHCA is pleased to see CMS and CDC acknowledge and address the reporting burden on providers in the final rule as well as in their response to AHCA’s comments. Specifically, CMS notes they are requiring the minimal necessary data for weekly data reporting to NHSN to maintain a level of situational awareness that will protect resident health and safety, and CDC has combined the required reporting fields into one simplified reporting form in NHSN. CDC will also provide enhanced user support, an improved helpdesk ticket response system, and training tailored to the LTC community to support the use of NHSN.

The new data elements for which NHSN reporting will be required on January 1, 2025, include:

Facility census
Resident vaccination status for COVID-19, influenza, and RSV
Confirmed resident cases of COVID-19, influenza, and RSV (overall and by vaccination status)
Hospitalized residents with confirmed cases of COVID-19, influenza, and RSV (overall and by vaccination status).

The final rule also allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in the event of a future acute respiratory illness public health emergency (PHE), to require submission of additional related data elements or an increased frequency of reporting. CMS also withdrew the portion of the proposed rule that would have allowed the Secretary to increase data reporting if a significant threat for a PHE for an acute infectious illness exists.

This rule is scheduled to be published on November 7, 2024, and can be found here. Please feel free to send questions to regulatory@ahca.org.

Clinical Update from KHCA Consultant Linda Farrar

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM CDC:

(Also reported from AHCA, see above)

CMS notes they are requiring the minimal necessary data for weekly data reporting to NHSN to maintain a level of situational awareness that will protect resident health and safety, and CDC has combined the required reporting fields into one simplified reporting form in NHSN. CDC will also provide enhanced user support, an improved helpdesk ticket response system, and training tailored to the LTC community to support the use of NHSN. READ MORE

CDC Recommends Extra COVID-19 Vaccine Dose For People Ages 65 And Up, Those With Weakened Immune Systems

NBC News (11/3, Syal) reports that in October, the CDC "recommended that high-risk adults get a second updated Covid vaccine to bolster their protection against the virus." The CDC "now recommends that people ages 65 and up and those with weakened immune systems get a second dose of the 2024-25 vaccine six months after their first dose." According to NBC, "no other vaccines are given at such a high frequency, but experts say there’s no reason to believe that the vaccines – and in particular, the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna – aren’t effective."

PEAK Experience Survey

Your voice matters! The PEAK Team at K-State, KDADS, and the PEAK Advisory Team need your help to improve the PEAK Program. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey by November 15th. Your feedback will directly impact the future of the program. Please share this link with other staff in your home – we want to make sure all voices are heard and opinions to be represented.

PEAK Participants: Click here

KHCA/KCAL PAC Contributions

With the 2024 elections just days away, I wanted to provide you with a list of candidates that your Political Action Committee (PAC) made contributions to. Several pieces of information in this file need to be explained.

That a contribution was given to a candidate is indicated by an asterisk (*) in the column titled PAC.
The decision to contribute to a campaign was made by the lobby team who took a comprehensive look as to who has served our profession the best. KHCA/KCAL neither endorses nor opposes any candidate.
Not all districts have contributions indicated (by the *). There are one of two reasons for that: the candidates ran unopposed or the candidate we contributed to did not win their primary.
Some districts have contributions to both candidates. In these situations, the incumbent was not running for re-election, and we hedged our bets by contributing to both newcomers.

Should you have questions specific to a particular race, please feel free to contact me. As always, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve you.

Linda MowBray

President/CEO

WEDNESDAY! Join KHCA/KCAL on November 6th at 1:00PM for a Free Bronze Virtual Workshop

If your organization has thought about participating in the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award program, this is your opportunity to complete the Bronze Award application from beginning to end with coaching support along the way from expert facilitators. READ MORE

THIS WEEK! KDADS Regional Roundtables

Topics of discussion include:

State Licensed Only Involuntary Discharge Reporting (Assisted Living, Residential Health Care, Home Plus)
Changes to CCRC since July 1, 2024
Receivership – what is it and how do you apply for it
Top deficiencies cited
Survey consistency
CMPs and Other Enforcement
NATCEP Bans and Waiver Process

Click the desired region below for additional details.

11/5/24 - Northeast Region in Overland Park, KS

11/6/24 - Northwest Region in Hays, KS

11/7/24 - Southwest Region in Dodge City, KS

Webinar: Welcome to the World of Dietary! LTC Refresher Course

December 12th, 2024 - 10:00AM - 2:30PM

Dietary department need a refresh? Sharpen your dietary knowledge and establish effective dietary department systems when you join Proactive for this virtual workshop. This 4-hour training will review team building, food service regulations, documentation requirements, IDT collaboration, preventing common deficiencies and much more! Co-presented by a dual Registered Dietitian and Nursing Home Administrator and a nurse/legal nurse consultant, your team will gain insights into the dietitian role, effective dietary systems and recommended QA oversight and management duties of the facility administrator! Don’t miss this unique opportunity to elevate the quality of your dietary department.

Learning Objectives:

Understand the importance of staff development, training, and teamwork in the dietary department.
Identify the regulatory requirements pertinent to the dietary manager role.
Identify survey procedures surveyors will follow to assess compliance with dietary related requirements.
Recognize areas of common deficiencies and how to avoid them.
Discuss integration of systems between nursing and dietary departments.
Describe best practices for implementing and/or improving assessment and documentation practices pertinent to systems related to nutrition and hydration.
Understand the role of the dietary manager in collaborating with the IDT to manage systems related to nutrition and hydration and reducing weight loss in LTC facilities

Click here for more details.