STATE NEWS   

KDADS Update on $15/Day Payments
The latest news is that there is no news. KDADS is still awaiting CMS approval.  While we wait KDADS did clarify what they are using to calculate the payment to each facility. Bland and Associates will be writing an article soon to help you estimate your payment.

Do Temporary Nurse Aide Hours Count Toward Clinical Hours in CNA Course?
No, BUT for anyone enrolled in a CNA course before July 1 there is a special exception made for Nurse Aide Trainee II’s and their clinical hours.  Everyone in a CNA course must complete the first half which is 20 hours classroom learning and 20 hours supervised clinical hours.  After that they can work as a Nurse Aide Trainee II and move on to another 25 hours classroom learning and 25 more hours of supervised clinicals.  Normally, hours worked as a NAT II cannot count toward their 25-hour supervised clinical requirement.  If you’re enrolled in a course before July 1 you get an exception to the rule, and the hours worked as a NAT II will count toward the last 25 clinical hours needed in the course.

This is not a mind-blowing exception, but it will hopefully get your TNAs into the regular workforce more quickly and conveniently.  Read the KDADS memo outlining this exception. 

SPARK Executive Committee Meets
The Executive reviewed available American Rescue Funds and their timing, allowable uses, and the Office of Recovery recommended a structure with recommendations coming from working groups, going to an Advisory Committee, then Executive Committee, and then State Finance Council.  Legislative leaders pushed back to what they viewed as an overreach of executive branch power.  

Of the four proposals the Executive Committee were presented to act on in order to bring to Friday’s State Finance Council meeting for approval, the only one that passed was an addition to the FY21 budget for the Office of Recovery with ability to carry the balance forward.  Staff will compile and present more information about the other proposals concerning funding of townships, FY22 budget, KDOL Unemployment Insurance surge support and vaccine lottery at a future meeting.  

 At this point, the full SPARK Task Force has not been announced.  Here is a link to the YouTube meeting stream and here is a link to the page for the SPARK meeting materials, although it has not yet been updated to include today’s meeting.  

FEDERAL NEWS  

CMS Extends Emergency Preparedness Actual Emergency Exemption
CMS released revised memo QSO-20-41-ALL to update guidance around use of the actual emergency exemption. CMS recently revised this memo on June 21, 2021 to clarify that providers that continue to operate under the emergency plan and have not returned to normal operations may utilize the actual emergency exemption, even if the exemption was used during the last exercise cycle. Read the LeadingAge National article for more details

CMS Kansas City Regional Meeting Notes
The Kansas City (Region VII) CMS office has restarted quarterly meetings with the regional state associations for LeadingAge and AHCA. LeadingAge Kansas, Kansas Health Care Association and our counterparts in Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri discussed the following topics with CMS officials.

  • CMS gave us brief updates on the issuance of new rules around vaccine education and reporting and increased payment for monoclonal antibody treatments.  LeadingAge Kansas and LeadingAge Iowa both spoke to the issue of providers potentially being punished for a lack of reporting to NHSN when it was minor technical issues that made CMS reject the data.  We also expressed provider concerns about sending notice of CMPs through a system that is largely monitored by MDS coordinators. (Side note: we have also been working with LeadingAge National to troubleshoot these issues and they are passing on our concerns in their CMS meetings as well.)
  • OSHA ETS Requirements: The associations expressed concerns about the new OSHA ETS requirements that may conflict with CMS/CDC requirements.  Specific examples were given for masking and quarantining.  CMS regional officials agreed to bring this up to central office.  LeadingAge National and AHCA are also meeting with the federal agencies with those concerns.
  • Nurse Aide Training Requirements: Several associations want to work on making CNA training more accessible, and their use of temporary nurse aides have not yet expired in their states.  (CMS did point to their memo allowing hours worked by temp aides to count toward their clinical requirements, which Kansas did take advantage of) LeadingAge Kansas and KHCA brought up CNA instructor requirements and nurse aide training bans as major impediments to increased training in our state.  LeadingAge Iowa discussed a past idea of allowing a greater variety of aides to free up CNAs for more complex and hands-on care.
  • What is the COVID-19 exit strategy? We asked CMS regional officials about any conversations or proposed timelines for moving beyond COVID-19 restrictions, for residents at the very least.  They did not have an answer but told us that CMS and CDC are having conversations now on that topic.

NHSN Reporting Data. CMS updated the data reporting site yesterday to display NHSN reporting for the week ending 06/13/2021.  View the data. Enforcement of this requirement was delayed to 06/21/2021; however, you may have received a warning letter from CMS in your CASPER folder on 06/14/2021 if no data or incomplete data was submitted by 06/13/2021. In order to be compliant with this requirement, you must submit data every week on all required fields. Be sure you are reporting vaccination data in the long-term care COVID-19 vaccination module, and if a given required field does not apply, enter “0” rather than leaving it blank.

ARP Funding Tidbits

LEADINGAGE KANSAS NEWS  

Did You Miss Today’s Webinar?
Check out the recording and the handouts from today’s webinar. Make plans to join us each Friday at 10 AM. Register here.

LEADINGAGE NEWS

Speaking Out for Members on NHSN Confusion: The latest NHSN reporting requirements are confusing and the frustration is bubbling over with members who are trying to comply and receive the negative surprise of being reported non-compliant. LeadingAge will be submitting comments to the federal register on the interim final rule, but in the meantime, they’ve reached out to CDC and CMS to gain clarification and share some of the issues they are hearing. Let Jodi Eyigor jeyigor@leadingage.org at LeadingAge know your questions/concerns on this topic.  

LeadingAge requests your input to assist with advocacy on disconnect between OSHA ETS and CMS requirements.  Confusion and frustration about the guidance/interpretation coming from OSHA and conflicts with CMS and CDC requirements is leaving some members at their wit’s end. The US Department of Labor houses OSHA.  LeadingAge is meeting with DOL soon and needs your examples of contradictory requirements, the impact of large OSHA fines, and anything else they need to represent your concerns.  Email your input to Cory Kallheim ckallheim@leadingage.org at LeadingAge and cc Debra@leadingagekansas.org

Upcoming Coronavirus Update Calls  
These calls occur every Monday and Wednesday now.  In addition to updates on federal happenings, there is a special topic and guest.  

  • Monday, June 28, 2:30 PM Central – Frontline worker recruitment, retention, communication as we come back from COVID.  Guest: Lori Porter, CEO of the National Association of Health Care Assistants (NAHCA) 
  • Wednesday, June 30, 2:30 PM Central – Special topic will be results of a new survey of older adults about their views and attitudes related to LTSS and post-acute care. Monica Morehead and Maryanne Kiley from the Advisory Board will help us unpack these results and share their thoughts on what providers can do to help change attitudes on long term care. 

Join the calls by registering here.

The next LeadingAge Monthly Nursing Homes Advisory Group Call
Join us June 29th at 1:00 PM Central. See the agenda and resources. If you have topics that you would like to discuss at future meetings email Jodi at jeyigor@leadingage.org   

VACCINATION NEWS  

Clarifications received by LeadingAge on NHSN Vaccine Reporting

  • What SAMS level is required for vaccination reporting? Only SAMS Level 1 is required for vaccination reporting, because the reporting is aggregate, nursing home-level reporting, not individual, patient-level reporting. If you are being denied access at Level 1, double-check to be sure you are reporting in the correct module. There is a COVID-19 vaccine reporting module under the Healthcare Personnel Safety (HPS) module that is intended for hospitals and requires Level 3 access. Nursing homes should be reporting under the Long-Term Care Facility (LTCF) module which requires Level 1 access. 
  • What reporting weeks are being cited and penalized? Our understanding is that providers will only be cited and penalized for non-reporting beginning with week ending 06/20 and going forward. We have reached out to CMS to clarify/confirm.
  • How can we correct the problem if we can’t see the problem? Providers were notified of non-reporting beginning with week ending 06/13 and penalties were enforced for non-reporting with week ending 06/20; however, the latest publicly available data is 06/06. Without seeing the data and with no explanations of the problem, it has been challenging to correct reporting issues. We have reached out to CMS regarding this issue with no opportunity to correct.

Vaccination Maps 

RESOURCES  

COVID-19 Personal Planning Resource
A two-page form with tips and instructions that individuals (ex. independent living residents, etc.) can use to tell COVID-19 workers about themselves if they have to go alone to a hospital or COVID-19 Unit. Produced by the Minnesota Board of Aging and the Minnesota Office of the LTC Ombudsman.

THANK YOU TO OUR GOLD PARTNER 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR