Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rule that will implement portions of section 6101 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act), which requires the disclosure of certain ownership, managerial, and other information regarding Med...
The 2026 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule finalized a small increase in the conversion factor but made significant practice expense (PE) adjustments that will directly affect clinicians practicing in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and nursing facilities (NFs). CMS’ new PE methodology reduces i...
Plate diagrams (PDs) are commonly used to monitor dietary intake in nursing homes (NHs). PD intake estimation of texture-modified diet (TMD) is reliable, but only if the offered portion is determined by weighing records (WRs). Offered portion size is usually individualized in NHs and WRs are impractical fo...
Influenza is a leading cause of admissions for nursing home (NH) residents. We previously evaluated the effectiveness of a high-dose trivalent influenza vaccine (HD) compared to a standard-dose influenza vaccine (SD) through a cluster-randomized trial of NH residents. Fewer residents from facilities rando...
This paper focuses on how medical directors serving post-acute and long-term care (PALTC) facilities have opportunities to work with their facilities and the companies that operate them to be successful in value-based healthcare programs. PALTC facilities (“facilities”) refer to nursing homes providing car...
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision overturning Chevron (Loper Bright Enterprises et al. v. Raimondo) will change the way agencies issue regulations and Congress considers legislation, including health-policy legislation, because courts no longer will defer to agencies’ statutory interpretation of ambiguous s...
The Veterans Health Administration (VA) STAR-VA program is a person-centered, interdisciplinary intervention for managing distress behaviors in dementia in VA nursing homes, called Community Living Centers (CLCs). Teams often struggle to sustain STAR-VA after site-lead partner turnover. The STAR-VA Sustain...
Assess the potential benefits of identifying drug-gene interactions in nursing home (NH) residents on multiple medications. Reduce the use of high-risk medications for residents with reduced drug metabolism.
The current staffing shortage across all disciplines of post-acute and long-term care (PALTC) settings is affecting the health and safety of residents, as well as the well-being of the current staff. The need to retain and recruit new talent to this challenging but fulfilling setting demands that we look t...