News

FREDERICK, MD ¾ Asbury Foundation has launched one of the largest philanthropic campaigns in senior living history. Called Everyday Exceptional, this $60 million campaign celebrated its first Kick-Off Event on March 6 at Asbury Methodist Village, located in Gaithersburg, Md.

Sharon Eyster, Chief Operating Officer/Vice President of Operations, for United Church of Christ Homes, Camp Hill, PA, has been inducted into the Hall of Honor in the McKnight’s Women of Distinction awards, a joint program of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care.

LeadingAge PA President and CEO Garry Pezzano today issued the following statement on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s 2023-24 budget proposal.

(Newtown Square, Pa.) — The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded White Horse Village a five-star rating for outstanding care and service. CMS created the Five-Star Quality Rating System—recognized as the gold standard in quality and safety rankings—in 2008 to help consumers, families and caregivers compare nursing homes. The five-star rating is the highest possible rating.

From LeadingAge PA sponsor, Paymerang: Within the accounts payable department lies a hidden gem that can revolutionize how CFOs manage their biggest challenges: invoice-to-pay automation.

The first ever Newsweek/Statista list of the 250 best CCRCs in the country has been released. Landis Homes in Lititz, PA is ranked #9 in the nation for 2024.

(Newtown Square, Pa.) — White Horse Village announces the appointment of Michael Shaw as the new President & CEO, effective December 1, 2023.

The final Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 Item Sets version (v)1.18.11 have been updated and are now available in the Downloads section on the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) Manual page. Changes in this version (listed below) align the item sets with the Errata V3.01.3 for MDS Data Specifications V3.01.1 (FINAL) posted September 21, 2023, on the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 Technical Information page. For a full list of changes to the final posted item sets since v1, see the Item Set Change Table Supplement that accompanies the posting. The MDS Item Sets v1.18.11 were effective beginning October 01, 2023.

Following LeadingAge national advocacy, HUD and Grant Solutions have agreed to offer extensions on the deadline for Standards for Success (SfS) reports for Service Coordination programs. The current deadline of Oct. 31 can be extended to Dec. 30, due to glitches in the reporting form. If you want to request If you want to request an extension for your Standards for Success reporting, email AskGMO@hud.gov to request it. The SfS reporting form is currently experiencing glitches that is causing form submission issues or inaccurate data collection; the glitches arose after several new data elements were added to the SfS reporting process this year. LeadingAge is working with Grant Solutions to fix the reporting glitches, including delimiter fields, lack of N/A fields, and issues with drop down form options populating. Service Coordinators should report any further issues to Juliana (jbilowich@leadingage.org) so that we can work with Grant Solutions to adjust the reporting form. Please note that if you are utilizing a third party service to submit your SfS reports, you made not be aware of the glitches and do not need to take further action.

In response to advocacy by LeadingAge national and others, HUD has extended the 2023 Standards for Success report submission due date to December 31. The Standards for Success reporting period began Oct. 1, 2022 and ended Sept. 30, 2023. The report submission due date was originally October 30. However, this year the Standards for Success data elements are being updated to improve data validity and quality of reporting, and there are glitches in the reporting form. HUD reported that the work has an anticipated completion date of Nov. 2, which is after the usual report submission due date of Oct. 30. LeadingAge has worked with Grant Solutions to identify and solve glitches reported by housing provider members. Previously, Grant Solutions was allowing extensions by request, but LeadingAge urged HUD to broadly extend the reporting timeframe to help preserve the integrity of the data submitted by Service Coordinators across the country. HUD has officially extended the deadline to Dec. 31, for all Multifamily Service Coordinator grantees. Reporting entities can submit their reports to HUD through the Standards for Success reporting tool and data repository, GrantSolutions OLDC, by direct data input (OLDC Form) or data file upload (Data File). If a provider was able to submit their reports at an earlier time using a third-party service, they may not need to take additional action at this time.

LeadingAge national hosted a members-only policy update call on the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA). During the recorded call, LeadingAge housing experts discussed new guidance from HUD on HOTMA implementation, key deadlines to be aware of, and next steps for housing providers. The call also reviewed HUD’s new asset limit rule and key questions from housing providers. The slides and recording are available for members here.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation released their yearly evaluation of the Value Based Insurance Design (VBID) demonstration including an at-a-glance review of the Hospice Benefit component. More than 1,168 hospices provided care to at least one hospice-eligible VBID beneficiary, a substantial increase from 2021’s 596 hospices. Of those hospices, only 22 percent were in network hospices, but that’s a 6% increase since 2021. In 2022, almost half of VBID beneficiaries receiving hospice care chose in-network hospices, up from 37% in 2021. Additional key findings on the hospice benefit include:

The data submission deadline for patients that passed away in April, May, and June 2023 (Quarter 2 2023) is Nov. 8. Survey vendors are responsible for successfully submitting files by 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 8. Hospice programs are encouraged to ensure their vendor properly submitted information.

CDC has released the new Vaccine Information Sheets (VIS) for this season’s COVID and RSV vaccines. Access the COVID VIS here and the RSV VIS here. Both VISs can be downloaded to PDF or RTF files for ease of sharing. Use this information to educate your residents, families, and staff about the benefits of vaccination.