by Karl Steinberg, MD, CMD, HMDC

On November 7, 2016, a Mississippi federal district court issued a temporary injunction that will prohibit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) from enforcing the provision in the new nursing home regulations that would bar facilities from using pre-litigation arbitration agreements in any form.  The case, entitled AHCA et al. v. Burwell, was brought by the American Health Care Association and its Mississippi chapter, challenging this new regulation as essentially being an overreach by CMS, and the judge in this case agreed.  Essentially, the Court suggests that if arbitration agreements are felt to be inappropriate because it deprives people from their right to a jury trial, then a law should be passed through Congress, not via regulation.

CALTCM ended October with a bang!  First we would like to extend a special thank you to the UC Davis Department of Nursing for sharing their building with CALTCM.  

The CALTCM Board of Directors met for their Fall in-person meeting on October 28th, 2016, in Sacramento. All members of the board were encouraged to attend, but those who had conflicts were able to join by phone.  Present and future direction of the organization was discussed. CALTCM had a very busy year; CALTCM trained a total of 54 nursing homes throughout California in CALTCM SNF 2.0 (INTERACT Training), we hosted several webinars, and live training events.   Foremost on everyone’s mind is member outreach, and Dr. Albert Lam led a discussion based upon his work with a small membership outreach working group consisting of physicians and non-physicians, this helpful presentation lead to valuable discussions that will enhance our 2017 annual meeting. The next BOD meeting will be in April 2017 in Los Angeles at the annual meeting.

by Timothy Gieseke, MD, CMD

It’s with great pleasure that CALTCM acknowledges the AHCA “Hero Award” for 2017 for programming in a non-profit facility was awarded last month at their annual meeting to “Chaparral House in Berkeley”.  Their administrator, KJ Page, has been a huge contributor to our continuing education committee as well as faculty at our annual meetings.  See the below announcement about the award for their program.  It’s no coincidence that they also have one of the lowest rates of antipsychotic use in the state.  Come to our annual meeting in 2017 and begin networking with KJ and other administrators in our state.

by Timothy Gieseke MD, CMD

As private pay PA / LTC patients enter the age of value based purchasing, its clear that CMS expects the private system to become fully integrated like the Kaiser Permanente system has become.  CMS is changing our reimbursement system to encourage tighter coordination of care. AMDA's most recent e-newsletter has the latest update on the 30 day readmission measure for SNFs along with a link to the SNF Value Based Purchasing Program.