Welcome to our monthly news round-up for all things government. Watch the video for the important highlights in June, and get more details in our weekly Aging Update email or visit news.leadingagekansas.org
Protected Income Limit Increase September 1st
KDHE is pushing the implementation of the protected income limit increase back to September 1st. We are still waiting on an official communication from the agency, and will post it in the aging update when we receive it. Questions? Contact Rachel rachel@leadingagekansas.org
Updated KDADS Surveyor Roster and Central Office Staff
KDADS provided us with an updated list of surveyors in each region, as well as the new staff in Topeka. Check it out
KDADS Nursing Home Stakeholder Meeting for June
Here are the latest updates from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services:
Receiverships: 20 nursing homes are still in receivership, including all 15 Skyline buildings. The state is still in discussion with potential buyers for those buildings, but no concrete information is being issued on that front. Under the receivership law, the receivership can only last two years, so the issue must be decided by the spring if not before. In the meantime, all Skyline buildings continue to operate under a management agreements with Mission Health.
Assisted Living/Home Plus Survey Trends: There continues to be a delay in surveys, averaging between 15 and 17 months. At least one member of the (already small) state-licensed only survey team will be retiring this month, so the potential of making up the gap is small. There continues to be a 30% rate of no deficiency surveys, and the top three tags continue to be for health care services, medications and disaster preparedness. Most high scope and severity tags are related to the resident care plan (or lack thereof).
New Policies for IDR and Desk Reviews: KDADS staff informed us they are currently working on some new agency policies concerning informal dispute resolution and desk reviews for nursing home plans of correction. The policies are being described as updates and clarifications, rather than substantive changes to existing policy. We will distribute them as soon as they are released.
PEAK: KDADS has renewed its contract with KState for another year, with no substantive changes to the program. Have opinions/suggestions about PEAK? Rachel is forming a member discussion group about PEAK, and would love to hear from you. rachel@leadingagekansas.org
CARE: KDADS has announced that they are investing more resources into the CARE program in order to add more staff, improve processes, and speed up processing and communication times for level of care scores. The hope is to see some improvement with the CARE process throughout the rest of the year. Have CARE issues? Let Rachel know! rachel@leadingagekansas.org
Data on the opening and closing of facilities:
2018
- 3 new skilled nursing facilities opened, and 6 closed. 1 closure was due to receivership, the remaining 5 were hospital long term care units closing and changing to hospital swing bed units.
- 16 new Homes Plus opened, and 8 closed. 1 adult day center closed.
2019 (so far)
- 2 new skilled nursing facilities
- 14 new homes plus
- 1 assisted living closed, and 1 home plus closed
For more discussion on these topics check out Rachel’s video in this week’s “June Government News Round-Up”
