Late Wednesday, CMS released an alert regarding the holidays, which promise to tempt both residents and staff to attend family gatherings. Aside from offering innovative ways to celebrate without gathering, CMS recommends continuing to closely follow visitation guidelines and adhering to the core principles of infection prevention.

• Remain six feet or more apart
• Wear a face covering
• Limit number of visitors at any one time

For residents (and staff) who leave senior homes for family gatherings, proactively provide this checklist of CMS/CDC recommendations, which is also summarized below.

• Limit close contact; keep gatherings as small as possible, and use technology to engage with others remotely
• Wear facemasks or cloth face covering at all times – including in cars, homes, restaurants, etc.
• Limit contact with commonly touched surfaces or shared items
• Avoid communal serving utensils, passing of food, potluck or buffet style food service; opt for individually prepared plates by a single server
• Perform hand hygiene often  
• Avoid large gatherings, crowded areas, and high-risk activities – including singing
• Avoid contact with those who've left their homes 14 days prior to the gathering
• Ask anyone with symptoms of or exposure to COVID-19 to not attend 
• Opt for outdoor gatherings; if indoors, ensure good ventilation – open windows/doors
• Verbally greet others instead of shaking hands or giving hugs
• Check local/state precautions and restrictions, including positivity rates and quarantine requirements, before crossing state lines

When residents return, CMS recommends that senior caregivers:

• Screen and increase monitoring for signs and symptoms
• Test for COVID-19 and place resident on transmission-based precautions (TBP) if:
  • Signs or symptoms are present
  • Resident or family reports possible exposure
  • Resident leaves frequently or for a prolonged time (24 hours or more)

As the COVID wrench throws itself into our holiday traditions, remember, a little bit of proactivity can go a long way. Remind residents and staff of these proven recommendations – and be safe out there.

We remain incredibly grateful to you for providing continued care and protection to community residents during this challenging time.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us to all of you!

Last month, the Trump Administration announced partnerships with CVS and Walgreens to provide and administer COVID-19 vaccines to residents of long-term care facilities (LTCF) nationwide. 

What you need to know:

• Free of charge 
• Includes needles, syringes, and other necessary equipment 
• Available to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), assisted-living facilities, and residential group homes. 
• Available to LTCF staff
• Expected to take three total visits over approximately two months
• Two doses are administered 28 days apart

What pharmacies will do:

• Receive and manage vaccines and associated supplies (e.g., syringes, needles, and personal protective equipment).
• Ensure cold chain management for vaccine.
• Provide on-site administration of vaccine.
• Report required vaccination data (who/what/where) to state, local, territorial, and federal public health authorities within 72 hours.

When to expect it:

• As soon as late November or early December
• Vaccines likely to roll out in phases, with nursing homes being second only to first responders and high-risk health care workers

What you can do to prepare:

1. Enroll your facility via the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) and complete the LTCF COVID-19 Module
2. Prepare to educate about vaccination risks and benefits
3. Prioritize who should get vaccines if supply is limited
4. Discuss mandatory vaccinations for all employees
5. Build a review committee for those who want to opt-out
6. Develop alternative policies (e.g., mandatory PPE) and enforcement plans for opt-outs
7. Incorporate vaccinations into new hire onboarding process

As details become known, your prep list may grow. But, at least you can check a few things off while we all anxiously await the official debut of the COVID-19 vaccine.

We've worked with senior care providers and experts for the last several years to identify pain points with managed care. As a result, we've uncovered 10 trends that may cause you to lose reimbursement dollars. Here they are:

1. Provider order includes an exclusion
2. Provider order includes a high-cost medication
3. Therapy minutes exceed the daily/weekly limit for the level assigned
4. Therapy minutes are below the daily/weekly limit for the level assigned
5. Resident's stay authorization information was not received or is missing
6. Resident's stay authorization is expired
7. Insurance verification dates/information is missing
8. There are gaps in the resident's insurance coverage period
9. The level of care is not assigned for the resident
10. A resident update to the payer is overdue

If these reasons are known, you may ask yourself why collecting on managing care is still an issue. The issue lies in the amount of time it takes to track each payer's contract details and map a resident's care back to each one's terms. 

If you're lucky, your organization employs case managers for this. However, the reality for many senior care providers is that 'managing' managed care is an add-on responsibility to someone's already-busy schedule. 

That's where technology can help. By converting your many paper contracts into an online database of requirements, and applying an alert system to track these 10 critical details, we solve two issues. We're helping you use your staff more effectively, shifting their time back to patients and we're making sure you get reimbursed.

If you'd like to hear more about how we can help you drive more revenue into your organization while using your staff's time more efficiently, get in touch about our Managed Care MASTER solution. 

This week, Senior Housing News gathered and presented great advice from senior care leaders in their article, Problem Solvers: Keeping Senior Living Staff Engaged Despite Fatigue. We've summarized the best ideas for you below and in an at-a-glance infographic.

Increase Communications

Check-In More Often

• Conduct more all-hands calls and use them to recognize staff efforts
• Consider random check-ins with communities 2-3 times a week
• Support efforts with staff newsletters and websites

Build Company Culture

Focus on Fun

• Welcome staff to work; thank them as they leave
• Offer virtual breaks, include games and contests
• Host parking lot events/parades with food, buttons,
• leaders dropping in via Skype/Facetime

Show Staff the Love

Recognize the Little Things

• Offer 'hero' pay, extra PTO, flexible schedules
• Increase budgets for employee appreciation and keep rewards flowing
• Follow-up with personal notes and certificates from leadership

Address Cultural Unrest

Promote Diversity and Equality

• Drive diversity and equality to recruiting and development
• Offer active listening sessions for employees to share experiences
• Create employee-lead diversity, inclusion and belonging council

Increase Support

Keep Things Simple

• Shelve non-priority tasks and assignments
• Increase formal education opportunities
• Offer employee webinars for stress, parenting, protecting self/family/residents, etc.
• Partner employees up for listening with empathy or buddy staffing programs

Leaders who contributed these great ideas represent the following communities: 

• Eclipse Senior Living
• Juniper Communities
• Seasons Living
• Pathway to Living
• Enlivant

Per the CMS Memo on Resident's Right to Vote issued earlier this month, senior care providers are required to support the right of residents to vote and not impede this right in any way. Here are 5 ways to ensure you're supporting your residents' right to vote!

#1 – Assess cognitively impaired residents' capacity to vote 

• If a person can indicate a desire to vote, s/he can also indicate a choice on a ballot.
• Remember, it is ok to assist – either yourself or by connecting them to others – but, it's not ok for anyone to make choices for them.
• For more tips, see Assisting Cognitively Impaired Individuals with Voting: A Quick Guide (American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging).
  

#2 – Make sure residents are registered

• Check to see if they are registered at vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote. 
• If they find they aren't, they can register at vote.gov

#3 – Help residents utilize absentee voting

• In some states, applications for absentee voting were due 10-11 days pre-election (AZ, FL, ID, IN, KY, MD, NM, RI, TX, VA).
• There is still time in many others, so check absentee voter deadlines for both application and submission deadlines.
• Most submissions are accepted up to and including the day of the election. 

#4 – Help residents track absentee votes

• For many, absentee voting is new and mysterious. You can offer residents peace of mind by helping them track their votes.
• Options vary by state but some form of tracking is available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

#5 – Support safe practices for residents who still want to visit polls

• While it certainly makes your job harder, residents have the right to vote at polls – even during COVID-19 and despite facility lock-downs.
• Educate residents and drivers on measures to take during the outing to reduce risks – physical distancing, masks, and other infection control precautions.
• Be prepared to handle the residents' return to the facility.

• Local LTC Ombudsman Program
• Local AARP chapter
• Local election commission

Download our At-A-Glance Infographic to remind your staff!