The Implications of Long COVID for Patients & the Health Care System

Wednesday, November 17, 2021 (10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. MT) 

The National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation will discuss the implications of Long COVID for Patients and the Health Care System during this one hour free webinar. 

What You Need to Know About the CY2022 Home Health Final Rule

Monday, November 1, 2021

11:00AM - 12:00PM Mountain

Description: NAHC President Bill Dombi and NAHC VP for Regulatory Affairs Mary Carr discuss the CY2022 Home Health Final Rule and analyze what it means for your agency. As expected, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will finalize the nationwide expansion of the Home Health Value Based Purchasing model. In addition to the payment rate updates, CMS will provide final changes to the PDGM model and the home health quality reporting program.

Free to NAHC members / $99 for non-members

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Biden crafts new spending package aimed at attracting all Democrats

The Washington Post

The announcement is a critical moment in Biden’s tenure, and the president plans to visit Capitol Hill on Thursday morning to address House Democrats, many of whom have been distressed by the programs being jettisoned to cut the proposal’s overall cost. While many key lawmakers did not immediately weigh in on the new plan, the White House stressed Biden’s belief that it will attract the support ofall Democrats in the Senate and pass the House.
 
Biden is also expected to make public remarks touting the plan as a generational boon to Americans.
 
Taken together, the moves reflect a decision by Biden to assume ownership of the sweeping safety-net proposal in a new way. He is investing enormous political capital in his new proposal — which follows days of intensive, secretive meetings with key lawmakers — and is essentially warning any wary Democrats that they risk damaging him and the party if they do not get on board.
 
The new signature initiative would expand Medicare benefits, promote cleaner energy, offer free prekindergarten and other educational opportunities and invest heavily in social safety net programs, including tax credits and other aid that chiefly benefit low-income families. It would mark the most far-reaching social package in years.
 
The administration has proposed funding the efforts through a slew of proposals, including a new surtax targeting ultrawealthy Americans.
 
Many of the components in the retooled, sweeping blueprint originate in the proposals Biden put forward in the spring. The ideas correspond with promises the president and other party candidates made in the course of the 2020 election, when Biden ran on a refrain to “build back better.”
 
But the policy framework that White House aides unfurled Thursday is a significant departure from the roughly $3.5 trillion that the president and many top party lawmakers initially sought. Downsizing that plan forced the president to jettison some of his own priorities, including a fuller expansion of Medicare and a plan to provide paid family leave to millions of Americans.
 
Many of the cuts reflected deep ideological divides among party liberals, who sought to spend aggressively, and moderates, who repeatedly in the debate have tried to dial back Democrats’ spending. While the shrinking size, from $3.5 trillion to $1.75 trillion, allows moderates to claim they significantly pared back the package, it also is certain to leave many liberals disappointed that they could not accomplish more.

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More than 237,000 Colorado health workers fully vaccinated; hundreds of facilities remain out of compliance

More than 237,000 health care workers are fully vaccinated and in compliance with the state mandate, new data shows, but hundreds of facilities have yet to report their data, and officials have begun issuing citations to those organizations.

The mandate took effect Oct. 1, and facilities were required to begin reporting their workforces' uptake first that day and again by Oct. 15. But as of Oct. 14, a third of them — 794 — have yet to do so, according to data provided by the state Tuesday. All of those facilities were out of compliance with the mandate, and the state informed them of their "impending deficiencies" late last week, said Jessica Bralish, spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health and Environment. 

"CDPHE is issuing citations to all facilities that failed to report," she said in an email.

When the state Board of Health passed the emergency rule requiring 100% vaccination of health care workers, officials made clear the state would hold facilities — not individual providers or workers — responsible for both tracking and ensuring uptake. Should facilities report below 100% compliance — which allows for some exemptions — they will face an escalating series of consequences, up to the state suspending or revoking their licenses, officials have said. 

Representatives from various health industries, particularly the hospital and nursing home trade groups, have lobbied the state to lower the mandate to 90%, which would be in line with flu vaccine regulations. But state officials have firmly denied that request and have said they will wait for guidance from the federal government, which has its own, yet-to-be-detailed mandate coming.

According to a list of the 794 deficient facilities that have yet to report their numbers, 283 — more than 35% — are assisted-living centers. Vaccination uptake among long-term care staffers has been a consistent concern among industry and state leaders since vaccines became available late last year. Even though they were among the first group to be eligible to receive the vaccine, those workers were consistently behind both their residents and medical providers in uptake rates.

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