December 8, 2020
In this Issue:
- Join us Next Week for the Consumer Voice Virtual Conference; See Updated Agenda
- CDC Panel Prioritizes Long-Term Care Residents and Workers for COVID-19 Vaccine
- Advocates in AL, IL, LA, ME, NH, OH, UT, VA, and WV: Take Action Now
- CMS Memo on Updates to Nursing Home Compare and Five Star Quality Rating System
- Nursing Home Testing FAQs from CMS
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Join us Next Week for the Consumer Voice Virtual Conference; See Updated Agenda Don't miss this opportunity to hear from experts on the most pressing long-term care issues, learn about best practices, and connect with other advocates. Join us for three days of live sessions and multiple opportunities to network with speakers, exhibitors, and other attendees.
See the recently updated session agenda, with session descriptions and speakers.
Session highlights include:
- Effects of Social Isolation on Those Living with Dementia with Teepa Snow and Shelly Edwards
- Advocating for Nursing Home Reforms at the State Level: What Are the Opportunities in a COVID-19 Environment?
- During Trying Times: Lessons Learned During COVID-19 and How to Care for One Another
- The Impact of Immunity – what does it mean for residents and families?
- The Resident Dialogue - hear from long-term care residents about their experience during the pandemic
- and much more! See the agenda here.
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CDC Panel Prioritizes Long-Term Care Residents and Workers for COVID-19 Vaccine The immunization advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) affirmed that long-term care residents and healthcare workers will be given first access to a COVID-19 vaccine once authorized by the federal government. Per the panel's definition, residents of long-term care facilities includes skilled nursing, assisted living and other resident care facilities.
For more information, read the article in McKnight's.
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Advocates in AL, IL, LA, ME, NH, OH, UT, VA and WV: Take Action Now As early as today, Congress may consider passing the Safe to Work Act, an immunity law introduced by Senators McConnell and Cornyn, that would give immunity to nursing homes for negligent care that harms nursing home residents during the pandemic. The Act would have a devastating impact on residents of long-term care facilities. COVID-19 has claimed the lives of over 100,000 residents and staff of long-term care facilities. Countless others have suffered harm from isolation and neglect. The Act would excuse long-term care facilities from almost all negligent care that harms residents during the pandemic - including injuries unrelated to COVID-19. If passed, the bill would place hundreds of thousands of current and future nursing home residents at risk of harm or death. Advocates in Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia: Please click here to tell your Senator to say NO to immunity for long-term care facilities!
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CMS Memo on Updates to Nursing Home Compare and the Five Star Quality Rating System The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a memo with updates to the Nursing Home Compare website and the Five Star Quality Rating System. In the memo, CMS states that it will resume calculating nursing homes Health Inspection and Quality Measure ratings on January 27, 201. It also states that CMS is completing its transtion to the new Care Compare website: medicare.gov/care-compare.
Read the memo.
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Nursing Home Testing FAQs from CMS The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released Nursing Home COVID-19 Testing FAQs. The FAQs cover questions related to county positivity rates, when testing frequency can be reduced, considerations for false positive antigen tests, when to perform outbreak testing, and more.
Read the FAQs
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