LEADINGAGE KANSAS NEWS
We Need to Know What Temporary Healthcare Staffing Agencies You Contract with to Build Our Case- Please Respond by January 6, 2022
We need information that only you can provide to help with our advocacy efforts with the Kansas Legislature to get pricing caps and other regulations for temporary healthcare staffing agencies in Kansas. Please complete this important survey (even if you are not currently using temporary healthcare staffing agencies) by January 6, 2022. Let me know if you have questions. Thank you!
STATE NEWS
Message from KDHE Acting Secretary Janet Stanic: Funding Extended for KDHE-Contracted Labs Through March 31, 2021
KDHE will provide support for COVID-19 testing at LTCFs (long term care facilities) that previously received KDHE-funded services through one of the labs contracted through the state to provide testing for COVID-19. Funding will be available until March 31, 2022.
This support shall continue through March 31st, 2022, at which point it will be discontinued and LTCFs will be expected to have a more permanent testing solution in place that does not need support from state or federal funding.
The Agency says that this testing will be provided to assure the ongoing availability of testing for residents and staff while LTCFs complete the onboarding process with Battelle, to make sure all LTCFs have adequate time to transition. KDHE will work with Battelle to monitor the status of facilities as they onboard to make sure they are making progress towards the transition.
LeadingAge Kansas Members Encouraged to Sign Up for Free Battelle Testing Now So You will be Ready When KDHE Lab Funding Ends
You can do so here: https://www.coronavirus.kdheks.gov/293/Long-Term-Care-Facility-Testing
FEDERAL NEWS
Sixth Circuit Dissolves Stay of OSHA ETS: What Does it Mean for Employers
By Brittany Barrientos and Amy Conway of StinsonThe saga of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) continues. On Friday night, December 17th, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an Opinion dissolving the stay of the ETS, meaning the ETS will go into effect unless reversed by the Supreme Court. Within 90 minutes of the Sixth Circuit Opinion, 26 Petitioners filed an emergency application for Immediate Stay and Petition for Writ of Certiorari with the Supreme Court. A number of other applications to the Supreme Court have been filed since.
The Sixth Circuit Opinion does not include a date for dissolving the stay, but on Saturday morning, December 18th, OSHA added a Litigation Update to its ETS website announcing it would not enforce the ETS until January 10, 2022 (for the core ETS requirements), and February 9, 2022 (for the weekly COVID testing requirements). The complete OSHA announcement stated:
To account for any uncertainty created by the stay, OSHA is exercising enforcement discretion with respect to the compliance dates of the ETS. To provide employers with sufficient time to come into compliance, OSHA will not issue citations for noncompliance with any requirements of the ETS before January 10th and will not issue citations for noncompliance with the standard’s testing requirements before February 9th, so long as an employer is exercising reasonable, good faith efforts to come into compliance with the standard. OSHA will work closely with the regulated community to provide compliance assistance.
Booster Numbers Reported May be Inaccurate
A number of LeadingAge nursing home members observe that the booster numbers reported by CMS are not accurate. CDC staff explained today that “the data on the CMS webpage has a data lag of at least 11 days from the time that CDC closes the weekly data set (Monday mornings) and they do, indeed represent data that were entered in NHSN by a designated nursing home representative, unless there is a third party reporting on their behalf. Also, the booster data fields are required and if there is a zero displayed, there are two possible reasons why: the facility entered the zero; or CMS is not displaying the data. We can’t be sure which scenario applies without more information.”
CMS Interim Final Rule/Vaccine Mandate
The Supreme Court has set a December 30th deadline for the states to respond to the Biden Administration’s request to remove the injunctions in place in the Missouri and Louisiana cases. With that timeframe in place, we will not expect a decision for a couple weeks.
LEADINGAGE NATIONAL NEWS
As the Omicron variant continues to rapidly spread across the U.S. and data continue to show the effectiveness of boosters in fighting this new variant, the urgency to get all older people and the staff who serve and care for them in aging services organizations a booster before January 1 has never been greater.
Tomorrow at 3 PM, AHCA/NCAL, Leading Age and the AARP will co-host a town hall featuring Admiral Rachel L. Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps to answer questions about the Omicron variant, boosters, and why we need to step up the timeline to get the booster. We will also hear from an aging services provider and resident/family member about their experience in receiving a booster to help reassure people who use aging services and the staff who serve them to get the booster.
Click here to participate The Town Hall will be recorded and available on ahcancalED.
LeadingAge Coronavirus Update Calls for Week of December 20th – All Update Calls are at 2:30 PM CT
Workforce issues around the country are still headline news and many LeadingAge members are still wondering “where did the workers all go?” On our Monday, December 20th call we will welcome back Mark McInernay, Director of the Center for Workforce Research and Information for the state of Maine. He will talk about the latest trends in the workforce and what we have learned about how workers are coming back into the workforce and some possible recruitment ideas for LeadingAge Members. LeadingAge members are also working hard to stay informed about the omicron variant and how we can control transmission. On our Wednesday, December 22nd call, we will be joined by Ronald Nahass, a leading infectious disease doctor who will take about the latest trends with COVID-19 and provide ideas and strategies for our members to control transmission and protect staff and residents.If you haven’t registered for LeadingAge Update Calls, you can do so here.
Letter to CMS Seeking More Flexibility on Nursing Home Visitation
After hearing concerns from many members about the unfortunate intersection of a potential new surge and the new CMS visitation guidance, we partnered with AMDA and AHCA to send a letter to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure expressing deep concerns about nursing home visitors having unlimited, unrestricted access and asking that nursing home leaders have more flexibility to temporarily restrict access.
Insights from LeadingAge:
- Mandate Minute, Week 5: This week, we saw that many large hospital systems have dropped their vaccine mandates for employees and explored the history of vaccine mandates. You can read the transcripts here.
- PACE Weekly Update. Here is your weekly PACE Update.
- Home Health and Hospice Weekly Update. Here is your weekly Home Health and Hospice Update.
- Affordable Housing Weekly Update. Here is your weekly Affordable Housing Update.
- Nursing Home Weekly Update. Here is your weekly Nursing Home Update
- Life Plan Community Weekly Update. Here is your weekly LPC Update.
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