VACCINE NEWS
Line Lists in NHSN
NHSN notified facilities on May 27th that Weekly COVID-19 Vaccination Summary line lists and bar charts were unavailable in the application. However, line lists are now available. Group and Facility level users can once again run Weekly COVID-19 Vaccination Summary reports and export these datasets. Future updates are planned to improve these reports. The bar charts will remain disabled until the next NHSN release in July. Therefore, if users attempt to run the bar chart reports, they will generate an empty report containing no data.
CMS / Surveyor Vaccination
CMS has rescinded previous guidance on surveyor vaccination (see here). Some states continue to have requirements in place that state survey agencies mandate vaccination of staff but from the federal level, CMS is stepping out. While it may be acceptable to require the same source control that you would require of a visitor or contractor whose vaccination status is unknown (looking into this further), please recall that you CANNOT DENY ENTRY to the surveyor. Denying entry to a surveyor is a violation of the provider agreement and puts you at risk for having your provider agreement terminated. We will share more information as available but any questions about state survey agency requirements or process should be directed to the state survey agency.
FEDERAL NEWS
OIG Commences Forensic Audit of Nursing Homes Use of PRF
It appears that the Office of the Inspector General has completed its audit of hospitals’ use of Provider Relief Funds and has now notified 30 selected nursing homes across the U.S. that they are the next in line for review. One member received a letter they were selected on June 7th. OIG states in the letter that the objective of the audit is, “to determine whether selected nursing facilities that received targeted PRF payments complied with certain terms and conditions, and Federal requirement for expending and reporting PRF payments.” OIG will be reviewing records related to both general PRF and the Targeted SNF and NHIC PRF payments for CY2020. Given that the timeframe for using CY2021 PRF payments does not expire until June 30, 2022, it makes sense that the audit is focused on the 2020 PRF payments. It is unclear at this time whether a subsequent audit will occur at a later date related to the CY2021 payments. The selected SNFs are asked to submit a list of required documents within 15 calendar days of receipt of the letter, which looks to be around June 22. Given that members have already had to submit PRF reports to HRSA on these funds, selected nursing homes should have many of the requested documents readily available. OIG has told us they aren’t looking for wrong doing but will pursue further action if it is discovered through this process. If members have any questions about this request or their PRF payments, they can email Nicole at nfallon@leadingage.org .
LEADINGAGE KANSAS NEWS
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LEADINGAGE NATIONAL NEWS
NO Coronavirus Update Call on Monday, June 20th
LeadingAge will be closed for the Juneteenth holiday.
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