hislop3

[hislop3]

Happy Mother's Day

Sunday is family day for me though honestly, I try to make every day “family day”. Growing up, Sundays were about church and family dinners. Even as I got older and no longer lived at home, if I was in town, I was expected (required) to be at family dinner. I never minded this expectation. My grandmother was the matriarch of the family. She was the lady of honor at our Sunday table. My mom, her…

[hislop3]

Quick Update

Good afternoon! While you all haven’t seen much on the face of the site, lots has been going on in the background. I/we are getting to the point of moving the site host for Reg’s Blog. This will happen across the next couple of days. I believe the site will not suffer any article or resource loss but “no guarantees” from the new hosting company. After the site migration to the new host, there…

[hislop3]

Friday Feature: Housekeeping

TGIF! Time for a bit of housekeeping. This site’s first post was on March 27, 2009. Today, there are nearly 500 posts on the site, separate from other stuff like presentations, downloads, etc. Across the fifteen years I have worked on the site, posting, etc., I can’t even begin to measure how many views or hits the site has had. Suffice to say, lots. Readers and followers come from all over the…

[hislop3]

FTC Bans Employment Non-Compete Provisions - Healthcare Implications Aplenty

On Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission issued a final rule effectively, banning non-compete agreements, provisions, etc. for employees, including executives. The final rule contains separate provisions defining unfair methods of competition for the two subcategories of workers. Specifically, the final rule provides that, with respect to a worker other than a senior executive, it is an unfair…

[hislop3]

Wednesday Feature: Massachusetts Nursing Home Residents Set to Transition to Community Living with $1 Billion Settlement

Happy Hump Day! Last week, the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, Kim Driscoll, announced the settlement of a class action lawsuit filed against the state by six disabled nursing home residents. The suit was filed in 2022 alleging that the state underfunded community-based care options, trapping them in nursing homes despite their wishes to return to community settings, such as Assisted…

[hislop3]

CMS Final SNF Staffing Rule

Late yesterday, CMS released the draft of the Final Rule consistently defined as the “staffing mandate rule”. Earlier in the day, I wrote a post about the final staffing rule and the final Medicaid access rule. At the time, CMS had only notified everyone about the final rule(s) contents via a press release. The actual text is now public and available here: Final SNF Staffing Rule 4 22 24 The…

[hislop3]

Regulation Monday: SNF Staffing Mandate and Medicaid Access Rule

Just announced this morning, CMS has finalized two hotly debated proposed rules into final rules. The final rules involve the SNF staffing mandate proposed last year and the Medicaid Access Rule, requiring 80% of payments for Medicaid HCBS programs go to compensation for direct care workers. The Medicaid Rule follows the original proposed rule while the staffing mandate INCREASES the number of…

[hislop3]

Friday Feature: Back to the Future and Care Rounds

TGIF! A frequent reader sent me a note earlier in the week and asked if I would drop in more clinically oriented stuff from time to time. I asked for details, and she said stuff “that is germane to patient care and operational improvements – QA/QI stuff”. So, today’s post is by request, sort of. I ran across a little case study piece from Sound Physicians about their work in a North Texas…

[hislop3]

Challenges Persist in Staffing for U.S. Life Plan Communities and Skilled Nursing Facilities

Monday, Fitch Ratings dropped a Non-Rating Commentary about staffing challenges in Life Plan and SNF organizations. Per the release, “Though growing for some time, payrolls for U.S. life plan communities (LPCs) and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are still well off the pace needed to reach a full post-pandemic recovery.” Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data indicates that Life Plan and SNF…

[hislop3]

Wednesday Feature: Budget Stuff...Cubed

Happy Hump Day! Busy day so far but wanted to sneak this post in, wrapping up the last two days of posts on budget (federal, Medicare) stuff. This being the third day and post on budgets (and last for a while, I promise), the title fits – cubed. https://rhislop3.com/2024/04/15/monday-budget-day/ https://rhislop3.com/2024/04/16/medpac-report-to-congress-a-wrap-with-monday/ What follows is a…

[hislop3]

MedPAC Report to Congress: A Wrap with Monday?

Yesterday I wrote a post on President Biden’s healthcare budget. Today, I thought a quick visit back to March and MedPAC’s Annual Report to Congress on payment and program adequacy would be a good “wrapper” – for now. Every year, MedPAC (the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission) reports to the Congress in March on the Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) payment systems, the Medicare (MA) program, and…

[hislop3]

Monday = Budget Day

As much as politics consumes the news, little on policy is included. Most days, the political stuff such as trials, Congressional hearings, back and forth tabloid (almost) stuff is front and center, missing is the “meat”. Reminds me of the 80’s Wendy’s commercial titled, “Where’s the beef?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riH5EsGcmTw While I know that the national election, inclusive of the…

[hislop3]

Friday Feature: An End to Arbitration Clauses?

TGIF! It’s been a long week with the eclipse and lots of economic news plus all the stuff going on in the Middle East. My inbox is flooded so weekend reading will need to include a lot of parsing and pitching. On Tuesday in the Senate, a bill was introduced by Senators Blumenthal (CT) and Hirono (HI) that would end the ability of nursing homes to require residents and/or their legal…

[hislop3]

The Dark Side of the Economy

On Monday, a good portion of the U.S. saw all or portions of a total eclipse. If you were in the “zone of totality”, you saw a heck of a show and witnessed the side-effects of day turning to dark and the weather turning noticeably colder. Cool stuff. Unfortunately, within the past week or so, the eclipse wasn’t the only thing that appeared “dark” or light reducing. Recent economic news in the…

[hislop3]

Recent HIPAA Right of Access Settlements Highlight Ongoing Enforcement Efforts

SNFs this one is for you! Yesterday’s post on billing fraud was too. It almost feels as if this second week of April has a compliance theme while last week, the focus was on CMS Proposed Rules. Assuredly, Wednesday will bring some different news as March CPI data drops. This news came last week via the Office of Civil Rights which oversees HIPAA related complaints. It pertains to two important…

[hislop3]

Medicare, DOJ, Fraud and the Eclipse?

Happy Eclipse Monday! The post title is meant as a bit of fun but there is a bit of relevancy as well. Billing fraud occurs via a process of hiding what actually has transpired (or should have) with the care of a patient. The most typical fraud is overbilling or charging the government for care not necessary or not actually provided. Recently, the case of Phillip Esformes reached final…

[hislop3]

Reducing MDRO Prevalence in Healthcare Facilities: The Impact of Chlorhexidine Bathing and Nasal Decolonization on Hospitalizations

I’m sure the first reaction to this title is, it’s an April Fool’s joke. This is not that. I know, I don’t really write on any deep clinical topics, for various reasons. First, I’m not qualified clinically (I read to say B.S. proof and to help my wife’s work – clinical compliance). Second, my only clinical training is the decades I’ve spent listening and learning from the clinicians I have worked…