A common question regarding MDS 3.0 Quality Measures (QMs) is why a discharged resident continues to trigger after leaving the facility. This is explained in section two of the MDS 3.0 Quality Measures User’s Manual, available in the Downloads section of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ QM webpage. …
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the April diagnosis code update files on the CDC ICD-10 webpage. For the first time in several years, there are no new ICD-10-CM codes effective April 1, 2025; however, this update provides revisions and corrects typographical errors. Nursing home staff will need …
The Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health in Nursing Facilities (COE-NF) is releasing new in-service toolkits. These toolkits address essential topics such as de-escalation, substance use disorder, and major depressive disorder. Designed to guide facility education leads, the toolkits provide comprehensive support for every step of the training process, from …
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provided guidance on which section GG column will be used for new measures in the MDS 3.0 Quality Measures User’s Manual (v17.0), effective Jan. 1, 2025. The measures affected are also the four measures that were frozen (i.e., held constant) from April …
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Mission & Priorities document (MPD). This document includes the expected responsibilities of the State Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) coordinator: CMS expects the states to continue to provide staff to serve as RAI/MDS educational and technical …
Starting Jan. 1, 2025, facilities are required to electronically report new information about COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). According to the Dec. 31, 2024, Quality, Safety & Oversight memo, QSO-25-11-NH, “The new data elements that LTC facilities are required to report …
In late December, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an updated version of the MDS 3.0 Quality Measures (QM) User’s Manual (version 17.0), which went into effect Jan. 1, 2025. The major changes from version 16.0 to 17.0 include two significant revisions. CMS revised the guidance on …
The AAPACN 2024 Quality Virtual Conference concluded each day with a robust live question and answer (Q&A) session, but not all questions had the opportunity to be answered live. AAPACN recently released the answers to over 30 questions to accompany the conference resources in a two-part Q&A document. For those …
AAPACN in collaboration with the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) has released a practice guidance tool and resource guide to help healthcare personnel in long-term care facilities implement enhanced barrier precautions (EBP). The practice guidance tool outlines when EBP should be implemented for residents, provides infection …
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has updated the Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage (NOMNC), (Form CMS-10123), and the Detailed Explanation of Non-Coverage (DENC), (Form CMS-10124). Providers must use the current notices until Dec. 31, 2024, and are required to use the new NOMNC and DENC beginning Jan. 1, 2025. …
