STATE NEWS
Governor Declares Emergency, Issues Executive Orders to help Adult Care Homes and Hospitals
Yesterday, Governor Kelly issued two declarations to help with the current staffing crisis. You can now use Temporary Aides – starting yesterday – for 15 days or until the KS Legislature fast tracks a bill to extend these orders until the end of March 2022. Read EO 22-02.
Reminder: Temporary Aides must complete the free training course sponsored by AHCA. Register for the program here. We have not received any indication from KDADS that they will change the additional requirements and guidelines from the original program. Find the KDADS guidance on temporary aides here.
Kansas State Legislative Session Begins Monday
We look forward to welcoming all of our State Representatives and Senators back to Topeka next week. Wondering what we’re doing this legislative session? Check out the LeadingAge Kansas 2022 Legislative Priorities. Questions? Contact Rachel Monger.
VISITATION NEWS
Changes to CMS Visitation FAQs
During yesterday’s Stakeholder Call, CMS issued some revisions to the Visitation FAQs that were released right before Christmas. The changes are shown in red in the document. As was reiterated on the Stakeholder Call, CMS believes visitation can still occur; “the lack of visitation was traumatic and had a very real physical and psychosocial impact.” Providers were advised to work with their Health Departments to manage outbreaks and reduce risk of transmission. Key changes to the December 23rd FAQs include:
- States may instruct nursing homes to take additional measures to make visitation safer, while ensuring visitation can still occur (e.g., requiring visitors to wear masks that fit well and provide better protection).
- Nursing homes should continue to work with their health departments when outbreaks occur and document their discussions and the actions they took to attempt to control the outbreak.
- A new question #10 asks if providers should continue to permit visitation during the Omicron spike; in short, the answer is yes.
- New question #11 asks why residents can choose to have visits when cases are increasing. The answer reiterates that this is a resident right.
- The final new question offers suggestions for how to conduct visits to reduce COVID transmission, such as offering masks, increasing ventilation, cleaning and sanitizing the visitation area after each visit, etc.
FEDERAL NEWS
CMS/CDC Nursing Home Stakeholder Call Recap
Yesterday’s CMS/CDC Nursing Home Stakeholder Call reiterated the contagiousness of Omicron (in terms of number of cases) and reviewed the importance of vaccines and booster doses to reduce potential severity of illness and hospitalization/death. CMS also used the opportunity to release some changes to the visitation FAQs (see item #4, below). The point that the new CDC guidance on isolation and quarantine is for the general public, NOT for healthcare providers was repeated, using this graphic explaining restrictions for healthcare personnel. The questions submitted by stakeholders contained some additional information that might be useful to LeadingAge provider members. Here are some highlights:
QUESTION: Does the CMS IFR apply to nursing homes but not assisted living providers?
ANSWER: CMS regulations for LTC facilities apply only to certified nursing homes and not assisted living or other residential care facilities. To see if a facility is required to comply with CMS regulations, please view the Medicare.gov Care Compare Website.
QUESTION: Many facilities are back in outbreak status due to the holidays and Omicron. Is there any guidance that would allow providers to suspend visitation during outbreak investigations?
ANSWER: Visitation must be permitted at all times with very limited rare exceptions…there may be times when an outbreak warrants the health department to intervene. We expect these situations to be extremely rare and only occur after the facility has been working with the health department to manage and prevent escalation of the outbreak.
QUESTION: Will you address the specifics of the vaccine exemptions and for those who do have an approved exemption, will they count towards the unvaccinated percent of staff?
ANSWER: “The formula WILL take exemptions into account.” “Surveyors will use a different formula to calculate the facility staff vaccination rate to determine compliance with the 100% staff vaccination rate requirement. This formula will include staff who are vaccinated, staff who have requested and/or been granted exemptions and staff who have a temporary delay in vaccination as recommended by the CDC.” “We expect the updated survey tools to be posted in the survey resources folder in the coming days.”
QUESTION: Is active screening of residents and staff required or recommended?
ANSWER: Active screening is not required but nursing homes should have a screening process in place for staff and visitors to ensure those with symptoms do not come in to work or visit.
QUESTION: Will CDC be changing the definition of “fully vaccinated” to include the booster
ANSWER: CDC is moving to using the phrase “up to date” but not changing the definition of “fully vaccinated,” which means that the individual had the primary series (one J&J or two mRNA shots). This is consistent with the language used to describe all vaccines.
The recording of the call will be available here when it is posted (this usually takes a few days). CMS and CDC committed to holding additional nursing home stakeholders every few weeks, until providers have all the information they need.
Information on Provider Relief Fund 2nd Reporting Period – Deadline March 31st
The second reporting period covers PRF funds received between July 1-December 31, 2020. These will include Phase 2, 3 and some of the Nursing Home Infection Control (NHIC) dollars. Providers can apply eligible coronavirus expenses and lost revenues from January 1, 2020-December 31, 2021 to these funds ONLY if they weren’t reported previously AND they weren’t covered by another funding source or required to be covered by other sources. (e.g. PPP or Medicare, etc.) Nursing Home Infection Control PRF can only be used for infection control expenses and NOT lost revenues. Begin compiling your information now as it is an arduous and time consuming process. Start by reviewing the available resources for reporting on the HRSA website prior to and while working on your reports: PRF Reporting Portal; PRF Portal – Reporting User’s Guide (Updated December 30, 2021); HRSA reporting resources page and PRF FAQ document.
VACCINATION NEWS
Updated Vaccine Mandate Resources
LeadingAge continues to gather resources on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Interim Final Rules mandating COVID-19 vaccination. Visit our Vaccine Mandates: Information, Tools & Resources page for additional resources, including these newly updated policies and procedures templates:
- Sample COVID-19 Vaccine Policy for Employees
- Sample Log for Vaccination
- Sample Religious Exemption Form
LEADINGAGE KANSAS NEWS
Weekly Webinars are Officially Back and Today Was a Great Start to the Year
We welcomed Cory Kallheim, Vice President of Legal Affairs and Social Accountability and Janine Finck-Boyle, Vice President of Regulatory Affairsfrom LeadingAge National to discuss federal issues.
Listen in to the discussion. Download the handouts from today.
Join us next Friday for more up-to-date information and a rundown of the first week of the 2022 Legislative Session. Weekly Webinars are on Fridays at 10 AM. Register for 2022 here.
Please Complete Our Survey About Temporary Staffing Agencies
Deadline Extended January 11th. The survey, which is a joint effort with us and KHCA, will help us better understand the staffing agency landscape and advocate on your behalf during the 2022 state legislative session.
RESOURCES
Kansas Requirements for Paid Nutrition Assistants
We recently received a question about state requirements for staff who assist residents with eating. Here is the instructor manual which outlines the regulations and outline of training required for them.
Dispelling COVID Myths QuickCast
20 minutes. Separates fact from myth when it comes to getting vaccinated and provides a curated list of resources for building confidence in COVID vaccines. Access here.
Learning Hub: Two Resources to Re-Ignite Your Organizational Culture
In this QuickCast, Donna Cutting, Founder & CEO, Red-Carpet Learning Systems, Inc, details eight recruitment and retention strategies LeadingAge members can implement to strengthen their workforce cultures. In this Spotlight, listeners will learn strategies to address workforce burnout due to COVID-19 compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress.
LeadingAge Experts on Long-Term Care Workforce Shortages
LeadingAge’s Senior Vice President of Research, Robyn Stone, and Senior Director of Workforce Research & Strategy, Natasha Bryant, joined the Catholic Healthcare Association’s podcast, Catholic Health USA, to provide insights on the major challenges facing the long-term care workforce due to COVID-19. Listen to the recording.
THANK YOU TO OUR SILVER PARTNER
