Long-Term Care Survey Alert
Survey & Clinical News
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Ready for payment for performance or P4P? It may be coming sooner than you thought. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services acknowledged during a recent SNF Open Door Forum that plans for a "pay for performance" payment scheme are already under way. CMS is busy developing a demonstration project to test the concept of P4P, although it will be a while before the agency has anything ready for "prime time," said CMS' Sheila Lambowitz at the ODF.
CMS officials say the P4P program won't necessarily limit themselves to existing quality measures to determine how to assess quality as it may relate to payments.
Make sure to document your responses to residents' or family members' complaints or concerns. In a recent survey and certification letter, CMS spells out questions the agency wants state survey agencies (SSAs) to ask as part of the intake process for handling complaints about nursing home care and services. And one of the questions has to do with whether the complainant has spoken to anyone at the facility about his or her concern - and, if so, the person's response. In prioritizing allegations, state survey agencies should consider whether the facility has reported the incident. The SSA should also consider the MDS information for the named resident, the letter directs.
To read the letter (S&C 05-31), go to www.cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/survey-cert/sc0531.pdf.
Preventing falls among nursing home residents could be as easy as administering the proper dose of vitamin D. Nursing home residents who get at least 800 IUs of vitamin D daily have a lower incidence of falls compared with those receiving a lower dose of vitamin D, according to research presented at the recent meeting of the American Geriatrics Society, MedicalPost.com reports. The patients in the 800 IU group had a 71 percent reduction in the risk of falls compared with the other four groups combined, according to the publication. Researchers speculate that the supplement could exert an influence on muscles, which have receptors for vitamin D.
Long-Term Care Survey Alert
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Ready for payment for performance or P4P? It may be coming sooner than you thought. [...]