LeadingAge New Jersey Annual Meeting & EXPO
Caesars Hotel Atlantic City
June 11 - June 13, 2019

Less than 20 booths left!

Keep an eye out for the event app registration coming soon!

With LeadingAge New Jersey Annual Meeting & EXPO right around the corner, now is the time to prepare. 

Hotel Rooms
Your HOTEL ROOM for LeadingAge New Jersey Annual Meeting & EXPO 2019 is ready to be booked

Call-In  Room Reservations: (888) 516-2215 (8 a.m. - 2 a.m. EST seven days a week)
Group name: LeadingAge New Jersey 2019
Group code: SC06LA9

Online Booking
Book online here:  https://book.passkey.com/go/sc06la9

Sponsorship Opportunities

LeadingAge New Jersey's Annual Meeting and EXPO is the premier event for mission driven providers of high quality health care, housing and services for seniors. Our members come to our annual meeting to find life changing products & services for their residents and clients and we connect you face to face with senior level leaders who purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars of goods and services annually.

For more details, view the 2019 Sponsorship Opportunities file:  Sponsorship Opportunities 2019
 
For more information on the event view the:  
2019 Exhibitor Prospectus
News & Updates

 

Dear LeadingAge New Jersey Members,

I'm delighted to announce LeadingAge New Jersey has joined the Center for Non-Profits. Annually, the Center for Non-Profits works to strengthen New Jersey's 34,000 501 © (3) organizations employing nearly 321,000 people through advancing knowledge, championing and protecting our interests and providing cost saving member resources.
To show their appreciation for our support, the Center for Non-Profits, for a limited time, is offering LeadingAge NJ members an exclusive savings of 20% off annual dues if you join the Center by May 31. Please use code LeadingAge NJ . You may join online or mail them the membership enrollment form with payment.

Center members support our work to advocate for and strengthen New Jersey non-profits. Membership is a sound investment in your organization and in New Jersey's non-profit community. Benefits include:
 
Please look forward to a briefing on current issues including the ones below to be scheduled in the future.
 
Any questions or suggestions please contact the Center at center@njnonprofits.org
 
732-227-0800 or our offices.

 
James W. McCracken               

HUD TELLS PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITIES AND PRIVATE OWNERS
TO PROTECT RESIDENTS FROM CARBON MONOXIDE
 
Department to propose new rule to make optional CO detectors mandatory
 
            WASHINGTON DC- In an effort to protect families living in federally subsidized housing from potentially deadly carbon monoxide (CO), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today sent all public housing authorities and private owners of HUD-subsidized housing a notice to remind and encourage them to install working CO detectors in their properties.  Read HUD's notice.
 
HUD's notice reminds HUD-subsidized housing providers of their legal obligation to install working carbon monoxide detectors in those jurisdictions where these devices are required. In those states and local communities where CO detectors are not required, the Department is strongly encouraging housing authorities and owners to install them.  Additionally, HUD indicated that it will propose new regulations to require working CO detectors in all HUD-subsidized housing programs nationwide.
 
"A simple, inexpensive, widely available device can be the difference between life and death," said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. "Given the unevenness of state and local law, we intend to make certain that CO detectors are required in all our housing programs, just as we require smoke detectors, no matter where our HUD-assisted families live."
 
Carbon monoxide is a byproduct of fuel-fired combustion appliances such as furnaces and water heaters. If not properly vented, this undetectable gas can be dangerous and even deadly. Last month, HUD's Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) issued a notice to all HUD and HUD-contracted inspectors requiring them to collect data to determine the prevalence of CO detection systems in HUD-assisted properties subject to its Uniform Physical Condition Standards. 
 
HUD's notice issued today covers the following programs:
 
  • Public Housing
  • Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance
  • Housing Choice Voucher (tenant-based or project-based),
  • Section 202 (Supportive Housing for the Elderly), and
  • Section 811 (Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities).
 
In those states where CO detectors are required, HUD is reminding owners, managers and agents of these housing programs to make certain they have working CO detectors in all their housing units/buildings.  In those states where CO detectors are not required under state/local law, HUD is strongly encouraging these housing providers to install them. 
 
HUD anticipates issuing further guidance and instructions on this important public health issue.  In addition, HUD will undertake rulemaking for the Housing Choice Voucher, Multifamily and Public Housing Programs to add a requirement for functioning carbon monoxide detectors in units with fuel-fired/burning appliance(s), and/or an attached garage.
 
 


  • Assistant Administrator- Skilled Nursing Services
  • Director of Social Services
  • Executive Director (CEO) Opportunities
  • Retirement Sales Counselor
AGreenbaum@leadingagenj.org or call the LeadingAge New Jersey office at (609) 452-1161.  
 
Nursing Home Five Star System Update
 
 
The Nursing Home Five Star system has been updated to reflect key components of quality and safety.  CMS anticipates that many facilities will see a decline in their star ratings in individual domains as well as the overall Five Star Rating as a result of these changes. Updates can be viewed at  https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html .
 
Specific changes and additions to the Five Star system are:
 
  • The health inspection star rating will once again be calculated in a facility's overall star rating. This rating was "frozen" in February 2018 while CMS studied the impact of the new survey process implemented in November 2017. Health inspection ratings are now calculated with weighting as described in the Five Star Users Manual  and inclusion of the past three cycles of inspections. Surveys conducted on or after November 28, 2017 will be included in these new calculations.
  • The staffing level thresholds will increase along with increased weight given to registered nurse (RN) staffing. Now, facilities that report no RN on-site for 4 or more days in a quarter will receive an automatic one-star rating for staffing. Also, a facility will receive an automatic one-star rating for RN staffing and overall staffing if any of the following applies:
    • The facility fails to submit staffing data by the required deadline.
    • The facility fails to respond to the CMS data audit request.
    • The facility responds to an audit request and the audit shows a significant discrepancy between the hours reported and the hours verified.
 
Should either of the last two conditions apply, the facility will show a one-star rating for three months from the time the deadline to respond to the audit request passes or from the time discrepancies are identified by the audit, rather than simply following the quarterly schedule for ratings.
 
  • The quality measures domain will now contain separate ratings for short-stay and long-stay quality measures and both ratings will be calculated in a facility's quality measure rating and overall star rating. Rating thresholds have also been increased and CMS has implemented a process for continual increase whereby a quality measure threshold will increase by 50% of the average rate of improvement every six months. Quality measures will be calculated according to two separate weightings in order to "better reflect the clinical significance and room for improvement" and these weightings will include separate scoring methods. Long-stay hospitalizations were added to the domain in October 2018 and will now be calculated in the overall star rating. Long-stay emergency department transfers will be newly added to the domain and will be calculated in the overall star rating. Short-stay measures for pressure ulcers and successful discharge to community with be replaced by similar measures from the SNF Quality Reporting Program and the long-stay physical restraint measure will no longer be calculated in domain or overall star ratings, though it will continue to be measured on the Nursing Home Compare website.
 
 
Attached is the updated state level cut point table for April 2019.
 
In addition, we have data on the impact of Five Star Changes to New Jersey:

 

  • Overall, 59 (16%) NJ nursing homes gained a star(s) in their overall rating while 113 (31%)lost a star(s);  183 facilities had no change.
     
  • 102 (28%) gained a star(s) in the inspection rating while 87 lost a star(s) and 166 experienced no change.

     

  • In the staffing area, 39 facilities gained a star(s) (11%) while 114 lost a star(s) (31%) and 201 had no change.

     

  • Lastly, in the quality measure rating, 17 (5%) gained a star(s), 98  (27%) lost a star(s) and 240 had no change.
 
Questions about the Five Star Rating System and Nursing Home Compare can be directed to BetterCare@cms.hhs.gov. For questions specifically related to the staffing domain or payroll-based journal, contact NHStaffing@cms.hhs.gov.

STAY CONNECTED
JOIN THE CONVERSATION