Documents include: 

• Frequently Asked Questions to Assist Medicare Providers
• Medicare Telehealth Frequently Asked Questions (PDF) (now included in all-inclusive FAQs) 
• Medicare Monoclonal Antibody COVID-19 Infusion Program Instruction
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), CLIA Guidance During the COVID-19 Emergency

Long-Term Care Facility Toolkit: Preparing for COVID-19 Vaccination at Your Facility

Answering Common Questions About COVID-19 Vaccines

This toolkit provides long-term care facility (LTCF) administrators and clinical leadership with information and resources to help build vaccine confidence among healthcare personnel (HCP) and residents. You play a critical role in providing trusted information and ensuring high COVID-19 vaccination coverage in your facility.

CDC provides information on COVID-19 vaccinations for residents and staff:

• Importance of COVID-19 Vaccination for Residents of Long-term Care Facilities
• The Importance of COVID-19 Vaccination for Healthcare Personnel

Special Edition – Monday, December 28, 2020

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act suspended the payment adjustment percentage of 2% applied to all Medicare Fee-For-Service (FFS) claims from May 1 through December 31.  The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, signed into law on December 27, extends the suspension period to March 31, 2021.

Also see: Guidance for SARS-CoV-2 Point-of-Care Testing

UPDATE: 

As of December 28, 2020

• Updated To whom long-term care facilities (LCTFs) should report point-of-care antigen testing data under “Reporting requirements for SARS-CoV-2 tests”

In response to the national emergency that was declared concerning the COVID-19 outbreak, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is implementing 6 new diagnosis codes into the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM), effective January 1, 2021.

The files below contain information on the ICD-10-CM COVID-19 updates effective with discharges and patient encounters on and after January 1, 2021.

<span xml:lang="EN">The 2021 ICD-10-CM files below contain information on the ICD-10-CM updates for FY 2021. These 2021 ICD-10-CM codes are to be used for discharges occurring from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021 and for patient encounters occurring from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.

Note:<span xml:lang="EN"> There is no FY 2021 GEMs file. As stated in the FY 2016 IPPS/LTCH PPS final rule (80 FR 49388), the GEMs have been updated on an annual basis as part of the ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee meetings process and will continue to be updated for approximately 3 years after ICD-10 is implemented.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers strategies for optimizing the supply of:

N95 respirators

Face masks

Isolation gowns

Eye Protection

Gloves

Powered Air-Purifying Respirators (PAPRs)

Elastomeric respirators

Ventilators

The phone rings early one Saturday morning; it’s the night shift nurse calling to tell you that Mrs. Jones has a large bruise on her chest and staff does not know how it occurred. What you do next affects not only Mrs. Jones’ and other residents’ safety—it also has potential survey implications.

A facility confronting such a scenario must conduct a thorough and effective investigation. Most long-term care leaders both know and dread the requirement for investigations. When one is necessary, something unintended has occurred. Staff must actively work to uncover the cause or causes so interventions can be put in place to prevent future or widespread occurrences.

The State Operations Manual (SOM), Appendix PP, provides guidance to surveyors determining compliance with regulations. Under the regulatory group 483.12, Freedom from Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation, the SOM details 10 citations, or F-tags. F610, which deals with investigating, preventing, and correcting alleged violations, is one of the abuse citations. It also is one of the top 20 most cited F-tags. Regulations under F610 require facility staff to respond to allegations of abuse, neglect, exploitation, or mistreatment by conducting a thorough investigation. For full details of all the requirements under F610, refer to Appendix PP. In this article, we will discuss F610 citation findings and share some tips to help you avoid them.

As of 2017, 66 percent of nursing homes used an electronic health record (EHR) in some capacity, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. However, directors of nursing services (DNSs) are not always taking full advantage of the capabilities these tools offer. “Implementing or optimizing an EHR is hard work, but like anything with nursing leadership, if you put that time in to build a culture, it will save you and your staff so much time down the road,” says Becky Kaufmann, RN, vice president of quality assurance and education for Lutheran Life Communities in Arlington Heights, IL.

The following steps can help DNSs and other nurse leaders either implement a new EHR or optimize the use of an existing EHR to align with staff workflows:

An EHR should provide DNSs and other clinicians with access to data that will lead to a solution of an identified problem’s root cause, says Kevin Whitehurst, senior vice president for Skilled Nursing Solutions at MatrixCare in Bloomington, MN.

Infection prevention and control considerations for healthcare personnel with systemic signs and symptoms following COVID-19 vaccination

Note: Strategies are needed for healthcare facilities to appropriately evaluate and manage post-vaccination signs and symptoms among healthcare personnel (HCP). The approach described in this document is intended to reduce the risks for disruptions in care and pathogen (e.g., SARS-CoV-2) transmission resulting from:

·  unnecessarily excluding HCP with only post-vaccination signs and symptoms from work, and

·  inadvertently allowing HCP with SARS-CoV-2 or another transmissible infection to work.

These considerations are based on the current understanding of signs and symptoms following COVID-19 vaccination, including timing and duration, and might change as experience with the vaccine accumulates.