Rethink - Skilled Nursing News

Simply maintaining day-to-day operations at a nursing facility in 2020 was a herculean task, but several providers were able to also execute on the roll-out of an I-SNP, a special kind of Medicare Advantage plan for long-term care residents that proponents say provide both clinical and financial benefits to individual facilities. Hank Watson, chief development officer at American Health Plans, sat...

Tim Peck and Rob MacNaughton of Curve Health by Skilled Nursing News

Third-party rehabilitation providers are a crucial part of clinical care in the skilled nursing setting, and neither the pandemic this year nor an overhaul of Medicare reimbursement last year has changed that fact. But it has changed how rehab providers are working with their SNF partners. Tammy Tuminaro, the recently named CEO of Century Rehabilitation, joined Skilled Nursing News' Rethink podcas...

The institutional special needs plan model was one of the hottest topics of conversation in the skilled nursing world – of course, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. But for PruittHealth, its role as a Medicare Advantage provider gave it a unique position in its role as a skilled nursing provider, according to the operator's new corporate medical officer, Dr. Rayvelle Stallings. She believes that off...

After a disheartening experience working in nursing homes, former director of nursing Susan Ryan spent years spearheading initiatives designed to keep the elderly out of institutional care settings at all costs. But over time, she came to believe that there would always be a need for skilled nursing facilities to serve a specific portion of the aging population — just not the kind that have existe...

As nursing homes navigate COVID-19, the actions they take now could present legal minefields in the months and years to come. Those could stem from lawsuits brought by individuals – or by investigations from the state or federal government. Jon Ferry, a partner at the law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings and a former assistant U.S. attorney, joins Rethink to talk about some of the considerations...

Until scientists develop a vaccine or effective treatment for COVID-19, infection control — already so vital to resident safety — must be at the top of every nursing home operator's list of priorities. For Karen Hoffman, that topic has been the subject of her career over the course of four decades. As a former CMS consultant, current clinical instructor at the University of North Carolina, and 201...

As COVID-19 initially swept through nursing homes across the country in March and April, operators and staffers had a key advantage: Just about every state implemented stay-at-home orders that kept public spaces clear for the essential health care workers, reducing the risk of infection. But as spring turns to summer, states around the country have implemented varying degrees of “reopening” plans,...

LeadingAge CEO Katie Smith Sloan has been outspoken in her calls for increased government support for nursing homes and other senior care providers amid the COVID-19 crisis. As the case count continues to rise and operators face down a new normal with coronavirus at the center of every decision they make, Sloan has loudly and forcefully argued that the industry needs more funding and assistance. S...

Randy Oostra, the president and CEO of ProMedica Health System, is well situated to see every angle of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic in both the acute and pos-acute fields. The Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica acquired the operations of HCR ManorCare in 2018 – which puts ProMedica in a unique position during a pandemic that is attacking every part of the health care continuum and hitting skilled nur...

The Royal Health Group in Massachusetts had long-standing plans to change the location of its skilled nursing facility in the town of Falmuth; what they weren't expecting was that a global pandemic would hit as they planned the transition. Instead of freezing in place, the operator accelerated the move to give the Cape Cod Healthcare system a location for recovering COVID-19 patients. Royal Health...

As the chief medical officer for skilled nursing giant Genesis HealthCare, Dr. Richard Feifer has a direct view into hundreds of individual nursing homes as they deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Feifer joined "Rethink" to make a direct appeal to leaders about the dire need for personal protective equipment (PPE) and access to COVID-19 testing, two vital weapons against the disease t...

As both the chief medical officer for Signature HealthCARE and president of AMDA, the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine, Dr. Arif Nazir has a micro- and macro-level view on how skilled nursing facilities are fighting the novel coronavirus. Dr. Nazir sat down with SNN to talk about what he's seeing on the front lines, as well as the viability of some of the sweeping proposals that...

The novel coronavirus outbreak has put skilled nursing facilities on lockdown and disrupted daily life around the world. But health care needs continue apace, and the junction between SNF and hospital is crucial. Angie Roberson, the president of the American Case Management Association and the director of case management at the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, joins Rethink to talk about th...

In the senior housing and care spectrum, nursing homes typically have the worst reputation among the general public and the press — a negative image that can only worsen in cases of abuse, neglect, or high-profile accidents. As the managing partner and co-founder of Trifecta Public Strategies, Kelli Luneborg-Stern has guided skilled nursing operators through a variety of difficult times, and despi...

As the CEO of JMD Healthcare Solutions, John Delossantos has had a front-row seat to the Medicare payment model change still roiling the skilled nursing space. So far, Delossantos is upbeat about PDPM's potential to improve the health of both residents and the industry as a whole, but he's also identified some key areas where operators are still making mistakes that could lead to costly reimbursem...

The Patient-Driven Payment Model – and all the changes that came with it – arrived officially for skilled nursing providers in October 2019. The new Medicare reimbursement system for SNFs was top of mind throughout the year, but 2020 will bring a variety of new challenges, ranging from the entrenchment of accountable care organizations (ACOs) to the rise of managed care in the Medicaid program. Fr...

The opioid crisis has hit every part of the U.S. health care system – skilled nursing facilities included. But the state and federal regulations haven’t moved as fast as the crisis, even though more and more providers are seeing these patients come through their doors. For the Communicare Family of Companies, which is based in Ohio and has 87 SNFs in some of the most opioid-affected states, there...

For the first time in 34 years, an annual report on nursing home finances found that the median operating margin for operators fell below zero. For CLA managing principal Cory Rutledge, a co-author of the report, the result wasn't exactly surprising, given the headwinds battering the skilled nursing space over the past decade. But while he acknowledges that the number doesn't look great, Rutledge...

With 140 facilities, Consulate Health Care is something of an outlier in the skilled nursing world, and has seen its share of ups and downs related to its size. But after a strategic shrinking – and an overhaul to improve quality and care at the bedside – the operator is ready to grow again. CEO Chris Bryson has led the work in turning the company around. He joined Rethink to talk about how Consul...

Over the last few years, there's probably been no hotter topic in the skilled nursing space than I-SNPs — special Medicare Advantage plans that cover long-term residents of nursing homes and other institutional sites of care. As CEO of Longevity Health Plan, René Lerer has had a front-row seat to the expansion of these plans, which the company currently offers in Illinois and New York. Lerer joine...

It's never been a more important time for skilled nursing facilities to get to know their hospital partners, especially as SNFs face penalties for patient readmissions and a constant battle to maintain census and provide the best quality of care. That makes open lines of communication and strong relationships essential for acute and post-acute care —and Sue Craft, the vice president of inpatient c...

As the Medicare program's top clinical official, Dr. Kate Goodrich has played a major role in the wave of nursing home regulatory scrutiny coming from Washington and Baltimore over the last few years. Goodrich and CMS administrator Seema Verma have placed skilled nursing facility compliance and oversight at the top of their to-do lists, with a litany of accomplishments already under their belts —...

Skilled nursing providers can get chills at the thought of alternative payment models, which include Medicare arrangements such as bundled payments — one reimbursement shared by a range of providers for a single episode of care. After all, many bundled payment programs achieve their savings by cutting down on post-acute spending, adding pressure to already-squeezed skilled nursing facilities. But...

Publicly traded health care REITs have been blamed for some of the skilled nursing industry's woes in recent years — after all, how can a provider keep up with annual escalators as it navigates an uncertain reimbursement landscape and ever-rising staffing costs? But Wendy Simpson, president and CEO of LTC Properties, Inc., says REITs aren't the ones to blame — and that operators should instead mak...