VACCINE NEWS

Weekly KDHE Webinar
KDHE holds a webinar update every Thursday at 10 AM to update local partners on COVID-19 trends, etc. This includes aging services providers among others. The December 31, 2020 update contained some extremely valuable information related to vaccination. We strongly recommend that you have your Infection Preventionist and other appropriate personnel read the handouts from the presentation Slide highlights:

  • Slide 2-2:0 COVID situation in world and in Kansas
  • 21: Using positive asymptomatic staff in dire emergencies
  • 24-26: New Strains/variants
  • 27-38: Allergic reactions, contraindications and precautions
  • 38: Recommended medications/supplies to have ready in case of anaphylaxis
  • 40-47: KDHE Lab update
  • 48-56: Review of new KDHE Vaccination microsite (includes staff and community education, social media and other general and clinical resources)

Here’s the Q&A KDHE published as a follow up to their December 31 weekly webinar. worth a read.

New KDHE COVID-19 Vaccination Plan Webpage
KDHE recently published a new micro site providing updates and valuable resources regarding the vaccine. Check it out here.

Other Vaccination Resources

Homes Plus and Other (Non AL/RHC) State Licensed Only Vaccination Survey
If you operate a Homes Plus, Board and Care Home, adult day care, PACE or other state-licensed only adult care home for which you have not been able to make vaccination arrangements, please take this KDADS survey.

STATE NEWS

KDHE Isolation & Quarantine FAQs
Here is a great resource provided by the folks at KDHE regarding isolation and quarantine.

January 1, 2021 KDHE COVID Update
Updates to the KDHE website are posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As of the 1st, there were 207 clusters in long-term care facilities, including 39 clusters with 5 or more cases. There have been 2,900 deaths in Kansas due to COVID-19 complications, 85.6% of which have been in persons 65 or older.

FEDERAL NEWS

Provider Relief
HHS recently made it clear that Provider Relief is the Payer of Last Resort. Here’s a PRF Q and A on this topic that was added this week.

Q. My state or territorial Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) agency has directed providers to use Provider Relief Fund dollars before applying Medicaid or CHIP reimbursement, as well as Medicaid COVID-19 supplemental payments, to cover health care-related expenses or lost revenues attributable to coronavirus. Is this permissible? (Added 12/28/2020)

A. No. As it relates to expenses, providers identify their health care-related expenses, and then apply any amounts received through other sources (e.g., direct patient billing, commercial insurance, Medicare/Medicaid/CHIP, reimbursement from the Provider Relief Fund COVID-19 Claims Reimbursement to Health Care Providers and Facilities for Testing, Treatment, and Vaccine Administration for the Uninsured, or funds received from FEMA or SBA/Department of Treasury’s Paycheck Protection Program) that offset the health care-related expenses. Provider Relief Fund payments may be applied to the remaining expenses or cost, after netting the other funds received or obligated to be received which offset those expenses.

Provider Relief General Information from HHS.

LEADINGAGE KANSAS NEWS

Our Weekly Webinars are Back this Friday at 10 AM

Join us for a whole new year of weekly webinars and updates about the coronavirus each Friday at 10 AM. Register here.

Don’t Forget About Our COVID-19 Resources Developed for LeadingAge Kansas Members

  1. Pre/During/Post Outbreak Checklist
  2. Emergency Staffing Checklist
  3. Pulmonary Assessment Skills for Nurses (video and competency checklist)

Take 50 Minutes to Boost Your Mental Health with Coping with COVID Weekly Calls
We are gaining momentum with our Coping with COVID group meetings. This week we talked about Compassion Fatigue and how that is affecting our work after 10 months of the virus. Any member’s employees can participate each Monday at Noon by registering here.

Next week we will be launching an additional time/date to catch additional callers.

LEADINGAGE NEWS

Coronavirus Policy Update Every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 2:30 PM Central
On today’s online update, Surgeon General Jerome Adams will discuss what we can expect on vaccines in the coming days and weeks, what the surge means for our health care system and aging services providers, and the impact of health care disparities on vaccine acceptance. Also, CVS/Omnicare will share what the company is doing to address early communication problems in the Pharmacy Partnership, including new “office hours” for providers. Register now to join the update.

New Insights and Tools from LeadingAge
LeadingAge National staff experts are developing essential advocacy, guidance and tools, and curating the most relevant resources for aging services providers on COVID-19 and beyond, including:

RESOURCES

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