[03/22/13]
Posted on March 22, 2013 in Long-Term Care, Home Health & Hospice
Written by: Bufford, David W.
During yesterday’s Open Door Forum, Jeanette Kranacs, the Director of the Division of Institutional Post-Acute Care for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) commented that CMS will not be issuing instructions to surveyors on evaluating compliance and ethics programs until the regulations have been promulgated. CMS was required to have final regulations and various tools in place as of... READ MORE
Tags: ACA, billing, bufford, cms, compliance, ethics, improvement, jent, long term care, nf, oig, PPACA, program, qapi, regulation, rug, sebelius, selby, snf
[03/01/13]
Posted on March 1, 2013 in Long-Term Care, Home Health & Hospice
Written by: Bufford, David W.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has unofficially announced it will not be enforcing the upcoming March 23rd compliance program requirements until final regulations are published. As required under the Affordable Care Act, nursing facilities are required to have a compliance program in place by March 23, 2013. Despite ambiguity in the actual statute,... READ MORE
Tags: ACA, bufford, cms, compliance, facility, jent, long term care, march, nf, nursing, PPACA, program, selby, snf
[02/06/13]
Posted on February 6, 2013 in Long-Term Care, Home Health & Hospice
Written by: Bufford, David W.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) requires all skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and nursing facilities (NFs) to have an effective compliance and ethics program in place by March 23, 2013. Unfortunately, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has failed to publish final regulations covering these programs, as required under PPACA, by... READ MORE
Tags: bufford, cms, compliance, ethics, facility, jent, long term care, nf, nursing, oig, policy, program, regulation, selby, skilled, snf
[12/13/12]
Posted on December 13, 2012 in Long-Term Care, Home Health & Hospice
Written by: Bufford, David W.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has just issued a release detailing the establishment of the Healthcare Connect Fund (the “Fund”) to reform and modernize its universal service program for health care. Recognizing the importance of high-speed data connectedness for quality patient care and burgeoning health care practices such as telemedicine, the FCC is expanding and reforming its existing Rural Health... READ MORE
Tags: bufford, data, FCC, jent, Litigation and Risk Management, long term care, program, selby, snf
[11/09/11]
Posted on November 9, 2011 in Long-Term Care, Home Health & Hospice
Written by: Bufford, David W.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) has released instructions to prospective Accountable Care Organizations (“ACO”) for applying to the Shared Savings Program. The application process has both automated and paper options, but CMS strongly recommends using the automated application system. All organizations wanting to participate in the Shared Savings Program must submit a... READ MORE
Tags: accountable care, application, bufford, cms, jent, long term care, Medicaid/Medicare Enrollment and Regulatory Compliance, program, selby, shared savings
