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The NC Health Care Facilities Association presents Requirements of Participation (RoP) Phase 3. This session will overview the changes outlined in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Requirements for Medicare and Medicaid Participation which dramatically reforms the regulations for long term care facilities. The speaker will focus on Phase 3 Regulations, with special attention to Behavioral Health, Trauma, Informed Care, Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) and Training Requirements.

Objectives:

• Identify the timeline for Phase 3 compliance.
• Discuss the 10 key changes that are anticipated for implementation in Phase 3.
• Describe key characteristics of Trauma-Informed Care.
• State the 5 operational strategies for CMS compliance.

About the Speaker:

Kris Mastrangelo, President and CEO, Harmony Healthcare International

“I truly enjoyed Kris’ presentation. She’s very engaging and gave the audience good information to think about. Her personal stories were great!”

“Kris is absolutely amazing in clarity, comprehensive picture and context to past/present/future…will call her Guru Kris!”

“Informative and useful information consolidated and synthesized by speaker”

Kris Mastrangelo is nationally known and recently presented for the American Health Care Association (AHCA) during their 2017 Annual Convention and Expo. She has more than 24 years of experience in the Health Care profession with a specialty in the Long Term and Post-Acute Care Arena. An Occupational Therapist degree from Tufts University followed by a Master’s in Business Administration from Salem State University coupled with a Nursing Home Administrator’s License affords Kris an in-depth perspective into the nursing home profession. Initially providing direct care as an Occupational Therapist, Kris became familiar with the Medicare, Medicaid and HMO reimbursement systems. Her position evolved into the management of rehabilitation programs to Vice President of Operations for a national consulting company to Vice President of Reimbursement. Her experience includes the development and presentation of training modules (C.A.R.E.- Compliance, Audit, Analysis, Reimbursement and Regulatory and Efficiency) for independent owners to national organizations. She proclaims that “Our on-site and off-site medical record review process is the platform for C.A.R.E. optimization and systems improvement.” She is an integral player in the Payment Reform with significant contributions to the policy process. Kris was appointed to and serves on the AHCA’s Clinical Practice Committee (CPC).

This session will be offered in two locations:
April 10th, 2018 – Durham, NC
April 11th, 2018 – Charlotte, NC

Click here to view and print the brochure with registration form. Click here to register on-line now!

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NCHCFA Districts have scheduled their spring meetings. District meetings allow participants to interact with peers in a comfortable atmosphere, promoting valuable and productive conversation. Each space will be limited to 50 individuals. There will be a small registration cost of $35.00 to help with the speaker fee. Lunch will be provided.

This program will offer 4.0 contact hours for nursing home administrators. The North Carolina Health Care Facilities Association is a Registered Sponsor of continuing education with the NC State Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators. Comments regarding the Registered Sponsor Course may be addressed to: NCBENHA, 3733 National Drive, Suite 110, Raleigh, NC 27612.

The agenda will include the following topics/presentations:

Agenda

10:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Alliant Quality (QIN-QIO) –Alliant Quality will present an update on NC’s facilities’ quality measures.

10:30 AM – 2:30 PM
All Clear Emergency Management Group, LLC – Will Moorhead, President and Owner of All Clear Emergency Management Group, LLC, will dive into the “how to” of the exercise requirement of the CMS emergency preparedness rule. Learn how to design, conduct, and evaluate an exercise in a nursing home environment. The session will briefly review the CMS requirements, provide practical tips for efficiently completing a useful risk assessment, and examine the contents of a CMS compliant and practically applicable emergency plan. This review of the CMS requirements will demonstrate how exercise design is more easily accomplished when utilizing the best practices for risk assessment and emergency planning. Participants will be guided through information and steps that can be utilized for exercise design within their facility.

District I
April 25th
Silver Bluff Village
100 Silver Bluff Drive
Canton, NC 28716
Click here for District I registration form

District II
May 8th
Wilkes Senior Village
204 Old Brick Yard Road
North Wilkesboro, NC 28659
Click here for District II registration form

District III
May 22nd
Clapp’s Mountain Top Living Apartments
450 Mountain Top Drive
Asheboro, NC 27203
Click here for District III registration form

District IV
May 9th
Bradley Creek Health Center at Carolina Bay
630 Carolina Bay Drive
Wilmington, NC 28403
Click here for District IV registration form

District V
May 23rd
Cypress Glen Retirement Community
100 Hickory Street
Greenville, NC 27858
Click here for District V registration form

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NCHCFA has a new benefit of membership in 2018—a monthly Lunch and Learn Webinar Series. NCHCFA will offer a one-hour Webinar on a timely and relevant topic to its members for no additional charge. There will be no CEUs offered for these Webinars.

The next Webinar in the series is scheduled for April 19th, from 12 noon-1:00 PM. Mark your calendar today! Webinar details are below:

Title: Resident Opioid Use – Risks and Legal Obligations of Long Term Care Pharmacies, Facilities and Medical Directors

Presenter: Smith Moore Leatherwood, LLP

The Opioid crisis is in the news on a daily basis. Combatting the crisis is a primary government focus at the national and state levels. Litigation is filed weekly seeking to hold manufacturers, distributors, pharmacies, and prescribers responsible for addiction and the cost to government of dealing with the crisis. In this Webinar, you will learn about NC’s opioid legislation and action plan, how issues could arise during surveys, current trends in litigation, dangers within your own facility and workforce, and practical ways to seek to reduce your risk of government enforcement or resident claims. Responsibilities of and preventive strategies for long term care pharmacies, facilities, and medical directors will be addressed. Click here to register today!

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will begin to issue the new Medicare cards to beneficiaries in April 2018. The new cards feature an identification number rather than the beneficiary social security number. For additional information, click here.

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The American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) announced new goals as part of its multi-year initiative to further improve quality in long term and post-acute care. At its National Quality Summit in New Orleans, the Association challenged skilled nursing providers to meet measurable targets in four areas by March 2021. The nationwide effort builds on the progress achieved by the profession over the last six years.

“Our members are the driving force behind the significant quality advancements our profession continues to make,” said AHCA/NCAL President and CEO Mark Parkinson. “The next phase of the Quality Initiative sets the bar even higher. The goals we have established will improve the lives of the patients, residents, and families we serve.”

The three-year goals for skilled nursing centers are aligned with top priorities for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and federal mandates that link financial outcomes to quality performance. They are:

HOSPITALIZATIONS – Hospitalizations have the potential for negative physical, emotional, and psychological impacts on individuals in skilled nursing care and cost the Medicare program millions of dollars. This issue is a top priority for CMS and managed care programs. An example is the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Value Based Purchasing (VBP) Program financial outcomes to quality performance starting on Oct. 1, 2018.

Target – Safely reduce long-stay and short-stay hospitalizations by improving 10 percent (Q1 2017 baseline rates)—or maintain a rate of 10 percent or less—by March 2021.

Tracking Progress – Progress will continue to be measured by using two National Quality Forum (NQF)-endorsed measures—PointRight® Pro 30™ and PointRight® Pro Long Stay —available in AHCA’s members-only data collection and benchmarking tool, LTC Trend Tracker.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION – The happiness and peace of mind of patients, residents, and their families is paramount to skilled nursing care providers. Measuring and reporting satisfaction can help nursing centers identify and improve resident outcomes and organizational success.

Target – Improve long-stay and short-stay satisfaction by 10 percent (Q1 2017 baseline rates)—or achieve a rate of > 90 percent—by March 2021.

Tracking Progress – Progress will be measured by using a core set of customer satisfaction questions that can be uniformly used by long term and post-acute care providers. The NQF-endorsed questionnaire called “CoreQ” has been independently tested as a valid and reliable measure. AHCA members will continue to upload and track their data using LTC Trend Tracker.

FUNCTIONAL OUTCOMES – The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the IMPACT Act, and CMS all called for the development of functional improvement measures based on the self-care and mobility sections of the Continuity Assessment Record and Evaluation (CARE) tool. Maintaining or improving mobility and self-care abilities is important to healthy aging and maximizing independence.

Target – Improve functional outcomes (self-care and mobility) by 15 percent (Q1 2017 baseline rates) by March 2021.

Tracking Progress – Progress will be measured using two NQF-endorsed measures developed by AHCA in LTC Trend Tracker.

ANTIPSYCHOTICS – The use of antipsychotic medications to treat behavioral symptoms associated with dementia is not supported clinically and is considered o¬-label by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Additionally, antipsychotic drugs increase the risk of death, falls with fractures, hospitalizations and other complications resulting in poor health and high costs.

Target – Safely reduce the o¬-label use of antipsychotics by 10 percent (Q1 2017 baseline rates)—or maintain a rate of 8 percent or less in long-stay residents, and maintain a rate of 1 percent or less in short-stay residents—by March 2021.

Tracking Progress – Progress will be tracked by using the CMS measure for short-stay and long-stay settings on a quarterly basis, which is published on Nursing Home Compare and in AHCA’s LTC Trend Tracker.

Since the launch of the Quality Initiative in 2012, skilled nursing members have achieved reductions in the use of antipsychotics and in re-hospitalizations. Specifically, over half (57 percent) of skilled nursing member organizations safely reduced the off-label use of antipsychotic medications by 30 percent in the third quarter of 2017. For hospital readmissions, skilled nursing members have safely prevented more than 142,000 individuals from returning to the hospital — a 12 percent reduction since 2011.

To monitor progress among skilled nursing centers, AHCA will use CMS measures to track progress on antipsychotic usage, and measures endorsed by the independent rating organization National Quality Forum (NQF) to track progress on re-hospitalizations, functional outcomes and customer satisfaction.

The Association encourages its members to access free resources on ahcancalED and use LTC Trend Tracker to help accomplish the goals of the Quality Initiative.

AHCA will also be hosting a Webinar in April to discuss these new goals.

For additional information, including registration information for the Webinar, click here.

Learn more about the AHCA Quality Initiative at http://www.ahcancal.org/quality_improvement/qualityinitiative/Pages/default.aspx.

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The NC State Board of Examiners for Nursing Home Administrators (NCBENHA) will offer the 2018 Preceptor Seminars on April 23-24, 2018 and April 24-25, 2018 at the Kingston Plantation, Myrtle Beach, SC. You will need to choose the first seminar dates for Renewal Preceptor Certification and the second seminar dates for Initial Preceptor Certification and Continuing Education Only. The seminars will be open to all nursing home administrators seeking continuing education credits and/or preceptor certification. This is the only preceptor seminar being planned for 2018 by NCBENHA. The deadline to register is April 13th! Click here to download more information along with the registration form.

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National Association of Long Term Care Administrator Boards (NAB) has launched its new CE Registry, allowing administrators to track their certificates. Click here to learn how to register! This registry is free. Any Administrator who attends NAB Approved Courses in person or Self Study MUST sign up for an account on the NAB’s CE Registry by April 1st, 2018! Please visit http://www.nabweb.org and read the NAB Verify User Guide under Continuing Education and CE Registry.

IT IS OF HIGH IMPORTANCE THAT YOU SET UP YOUR ACCOUNT BECAUSE YOU WILL NEED THE INFORMATION FOR RENEWAL OF YOUR NURSING HOME ADMINISTRATOR LICENSE. If you do not sign up, NCBENHA WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GIVE YOU CREDIT for courses approved by NAB you attended. NCBENHA will still maintain your NC approved courses on their database, but to receive the credit for NAB approved courses you will need to be able to print off the course list from your account on the CE Registry at the time of renewal.

After you have created your NAB account, please log in at http://www.nabweb.org/manage-my-account. Once logged in, you will see a link directing you to the CE Registry. Should you have any questions, please contact the NCBENHA Office at (919) 571-4164.

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Alliant Quality wants to encourage SNFs to keep signing up for the National Collaborative – or SPACE. Alliant recommends having as much time as possible to get started on Quality Assurance Performance Improvement (QAPI) work and improving facility quality measures in a systems approach to improve their five star and composite scores.

Alliant Quality is the Medicare Quality Innovation Network (QIN) – Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for North Carolina. Under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Alliant Quality invites your nursing home to participate in a collaborative designed to ensure that every nursing home resident receives the highest quality of care.

The Collaborative offers an exciting opportunity to learn from high performing nursing homes regarding their processes as they pertain to consistent/permanent staff assignment, teamwork and communications, leadership, regulatory compliance, clinical models, and quality of life indicators. The Collaborative aligns national nursing home quality initiatives and partnerships such as the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes Campaign, The Partnership to Improve Dementia Care, and QAPI. Targeted focus areas will include increasing mobility, decreasing unnecessary use of antipsychotics in residents with dementia, decreasing potentially avoidable hospitalizations and decreasing healthcare acquired infections and conditions.

To register, click here for the Participation Agreement and fax or e-mail it back to Lisa Klemis, contact information is on the Participation Agreement. For more details, e-mail Leighann Sauls at Leighann.Sauls@area-F.hcqis.org or call (919) 745-4730.

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The newly revised edition of this popular resource provides professional caregivers with easy-to-understand and powerfully effective ways to prevent, reduce, or eliminate the challenging behaviors of care recipients. Nearly 80% of long-term care residents exhibit some level of difficult behaviors stemming from a wide range of factors including depression, personal distress, declining physical function, or dementia. Caregivers will learn how to use this book’s proven intervention tools and strategies to identify and satisfy the basic human needs that underlie challenging behaviors, as well as to encourage and reinforce positive behaviors.

To order, visit http://www.AHCApublications.org or call (800) 321-0343. Fax orders may also be placed at (800) 869-5605.

Product #8350
AHCA MEMBERS $38.99

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If you were unable to attend one of our sessions on the Requirements of Participation Phase 2 and the New Survey Process, the notebook used in the training is now available for purchase. Email Donna Snyder to order a notebook for your facility at donnas@nchcfa.org. The cost is $25.00 plus tax and shipping.

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Data, Not Donuts: Building Today’s Skilled Nursing Partnerships

Skilled Nursing News Article

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Movie trailers were originally played after the movie, hence the name.

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