Mass Senior Care is offering important webinars on compliance and regulatory issues, please register now.

Mass Senior Care has been made aware of some confusion among members related to SUD training of facility direct care staff.

The Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) intends to conduct a procurement for One Care plans and SCO plans through an aligned Request for Responses (RFR) process. The RFR will result in One Care and SCO contracts that would provide coverage beginning in CY2026 (January 1, 2026). Through the procurement, EOHHS will select organizations to operate a One Care plan, a SCO plan, or both.

MSCA has joined with AHCA in their advocacy efforts to halt a potential CMS minimum staffing mandate that may be as high as 4.1 hours per patient day (HPPD). To date, only 28 members from Massachusetts nursing facilities have submitted letters to CMS and we need at least 100 letters sent by the February 28th deadline.

Massachusetts legislators filed over 7,000 bills to be debated during the 2023-2024 legislative session, including important nursing home legislation, which would provide further support for quality nursing facility care.

NHSN released an updated version of the Excel Data Tracking Worksheet for facilities reporting COVID-19 vaccination data on health care personnel through the Healthcare Personnel Safety Component. The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) provided a COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) Transition Briefing. CMS will hold a National Nursing Home Stakeholder Call on Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at 3:00 pm ET for long-term care providers, facility staff and resident advocates.

Register now for these upcoming virtual sessions.

Earlier this month, the CMS CLIA office released memorandum 23-05-CLIA outlining procedural guidance for the use of form CMS-116.