The Lead May 11, 2021

Top Stories:
From the Desk of Karen Messer, President and CEO
CMS Rule Requires Long Term Care Facilities to Report Weekly COVID Vaccination Status of Staff and Residents
Recovery Funding Updates
Weekly TANs and Medicaid Pendings Update

Nursing and Rehabilitation:
SNF QRP Reporting Deadline May 17

Home and Community Based Services (HCBS):
CDC Call on Adult Day Services and COVID Vaccination

Top Stories:

From the Desk of Karen Messer, President and CEO
Each week, LeadingAge National puts together a weekly update of activities and issues for various member segments.  I encourage to you take a look at updates from the past week. 

With gratitude,

Karen

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CMS Rule Requires Long Term Care Facilities to Report Weekly COVID Vaccination Status of Staff and Residents
CMS announced today that long-term care facilities will be required to report weekly data on COVID-19 vaccination status for both residents and staff under a new interim final rule. The reporting requirement will apply to long-term care facilities and intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities, and enforcement will begin June 14. CMS will post facility-specific vaccination status information reported to the NHSN for viewing by facilities, stakeholders, and the public on CMS’ COVID-19 Nursing Home Data website. LeadingAge National will be discussing this on their Coronavirus update call at 2:30 tomorrow. Register to join.

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Recovery Funding Updates
The U.S. Treasury has released guidance related to Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds distribution. This will assist LeadingAge Illinois in pursuing funding for senior living provider relief.   Click here for a fact sheet on the funds.  You also can view recovery funding FAQs here

In addition to submitting to legislators, LeadingAge Illinois and the Illinois Health Care Association (IHCA) have submitted to the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS), refined lists of asks for assisted living, supportive living, and skilled nursing. 

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Weekly TANs and Medicaid Pendings Update
Our consultant, Matt Werner, has provided his weekly update on Transaction Audit Numbers (TANs). Click here to access the TANs report and here for an update on Medicaid pendings. 

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Nursing and Rehabilitation:

SNF QRP Reporting Deadline May 17
The submission deadline for the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program is approaching. MDS data for October 1 – December 31 (Q4) of calendar year (CY) 2020 are due with this submission deadline. All data must be submitted no later than 10:59 p.m. CST on May 17, 2021. The list of measures required for this deadline can be found here. Recall that the 1135 waiver related to MDS submission ends on May 10. CMS recommends that providers run applicable CASPER/iQIES/NHSN analysis reports prior to each quarterly reporting deadline, in order to ensure that all required data has been submitted.

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Home and Community Based Services (HCBS):

CDC Call on Adult Day Services and COVID Vaccination
On May 13 at 11 a.m. CST, the CDC is hosting a call for adult day services centers focused on COVID vaccination and sharing information about the public health aspects of managing adult day service programs, as COVID vaccination rates are increasing. Time will be dedicated to open discussion and Q+A. To participate, you must register in advance here. 

Meeting ID: 161 473 8490
Passcode: dzn+6way

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