Senior care providers are lining up to partner with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in its newly-announced initiative to improve dementia care in nursing homes. LeadingAge, a trade group representing nonprofit senior care organizations, for-profit nursing home trade group the American Health Care Association (AHCA), and others involved in the nursing home […]
AHCA
A consumer group is pointing an accusatory finger at the nursing home industry for reporting “staggering” first quarter earnings, while more than a third are providing “lousy” care. In their first quarter earnings reports, many publicly-traded companies operating skilled nursing facilities spoke of “record revenues” and “operating profits that exceeded expectations,” points out Brian Lee, […]
A plan to require nursing homes to hire independent pharmacists to assess residents’ prescriptions has been put on the back burner by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), reports Bloomberg. Regulators “decided to further study the issue for future policy considerations,” Jonathan Blum, deputy director of the agency, said in a conference call […]
Nursing homes remained “highly profitable” despite Medicare reimbursement cuts, but they’re still providing inferior care, says citizen advocacy organization Families for Better Care—a claim that the American Health Care Association (AHCA) was quick to counter. Despite “astonishing” recent nursing home earnings reports for publicly traded nursing homes, resident care remains “mediocre at best” with too […]
The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) unveiled on Wednesday a multi-year initiative to meet new quality goals, which include reducing rehospitalization rates and improving staff retention. The Quality Initiative has four goals designed to improve care in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. “We’re looking at the future […]
Lawmakers recently voted to extend the payroll tax cut through 2012, which includes a measure to prevent a 27.1% cut in Medicare payments to doctors for the rest of this year through a ‘doc fix’ that would be funded by reducing federal healthcare spending. But while doctors’ reimbursements might be saved, it could come at […]
The nursing home industry is working to prevent further Medicare reimbursement reductions, this time in the form of cuts to bad debt payments, by proposing an alternative: a plan to reduce hospital readmissions from skilled nursing facilities. On Wednesday, Feb. 1, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) will pitch its plan to a House-Senate conference […]
On Tuesday night, Dec. 13, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that included reducing Medicare bad debt payments, a proposal decried by the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care as it will “unfairly impact” skilled nursing facilities, and further contribute to sector instability. The provision, Section 2224 of […]