News | August 30, 2021 BREAKING: CMS to mandate COVID vaccines for nursing home staff Stay current with healthcare and senior care provider regulatory trends, news and solutions delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter. Sign me up Get Solutions Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. CMS McKnight’s Long-Term Care News reports nursing homes participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs will be required to have all staff vaccinated against Covidー19 in order to continue receiving federal funding for the programs. Providers could be expected to meet the mandate as soon as September 2021. Many nursing home providers are already mandating Covid-19 vaccination, but a CMS requirement will significantly impact an industry that faces staffing and financial challenges. Read the whole story >> HEALTHCARE The nation’s largest nursing home chain, has declared a “universal” COVID-19 vaccine policy for all employees, care partners and onsite vendors. They have three weeks to come into compliance. Healthcare organizations continue to prioritize the health and well being of their residents, patients and staff. With 357 facilities and nearly 42,000 skilled nursing beds, Genesis called making vaccinations a condition of doing business “the logical fulfillment of the ethical commitment of all healthcare workers to put patients as well as residents of long-term care facilities first and take all steps necessary to ensure their health and well-being.” Read more >> STATE LAWS New Jersey, Montana go opposite directions on mandatory COVID vaccines for long-term care workers State mandates can be significantly different from state to state. This week two states handled vaccine mandates in two totally different ways – the state of NewJersey is now requiring long term care workers and employees in other congregate settings to be fully vaccinated against covidー19, while Montana officials have forbidden operators from imposing a vaccine mandate. Read More >> Excelas, LLC is committed to collecting and organizing federal and state guidance in order to memorialize what was issued when. Integrate Your COVID-19 Response with Federal/State Guidelines >> SENIOR LIVING Higher nursing home fines expected after CMS returns to per-day penalties The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is no longer issuing fines to nursing homes solely on a per-instance basis, reversing 2017 guidance issued under the Trump administration. Surveyors may impose per-day or per-incident penalties effective July 21, 2021. Complying with audit and survey requests can place demands on already stretched human and financial resources. Excelas, LLC works to support the regulatory audit and survey process with services geared toward ensuring an expedient and complete response to the challenges at hand. Read the whole story >> The Rationale for a Medical Literature Chronology Database It is said that “the retrospectoscope is always 20/20.” Judgments regarding standard of care and deviation from standard must be made in consideration only of what was known and knowable at the time in question. This is where a medical literature COVID timeline could be a useful resource. Read the whole story »