An Independent Resource for Data on Senior Healthcare
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Nursing Home Closures – Act to Protect Your Loved One
The sudden closure of a nursing home can be a traumatic experience for residents and their families. It often leaves vulnerable individuals scrambling for new accommodations, while the disruption can lead to emotional and physical distress. This guide aims to provide you with the information and steps you can take to protect your loved one…
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New Nursing Home Minimum Staffing Requirements
On September 1, 2023 the US Department for Health and Human Services announced new minimum staffing standards for US nursing homes (see press release from CMS). The proposals comes more than a year after President Biden mentioned them in the 2022 State of the Union address and despite significant concerns from industry. According to the…
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Finding Information about Nursing Home Owners and Managers
As we were putting together the various pages related to the data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (“CMS”), we did not know what information would be interesting for people. We’ve tried to monitor what people click on and note what concerns people raise when they contact us. One surprise is that we get…
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What To Do When Someone Is In a Nursing Home
At some point in your life, it’s likely that you will have a friend or family member who will reside in a nursing home. This can be a very traumatic experience both for the person in the nursing home and for friends and family. Here are some items to consider if this happens to you.…
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What Home Health Care is Covered by Medicare
If you have read any of my blog entries, you will see that I like home health care. I think taking care of patients in their home is generally a better and less expensive way to deliver needed care. Patients are more relaxed at home and having care come to them is much easier. I…
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What Home Health Care Does
What Home Health Care Does General Services Home health care agencies provide services that help individuals maintain their health and well-being in their own homes. These services can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the individual and are often used to supplement the care provided by family members. Home health care agencies provide…
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Hospice Care is Different than Regular Health Care
Hospice is Not About Improving but About Feeling Comfortable Hospice care differs significantly from the type of care that we typically think of for health care. First and foremost, hospice care is palliative care. That means that the focus is on providing comfort and support, making the patient feel comfortable. With hospice care the focus…
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The Fault in CMS’ Stars
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) spends considerable time and effort promoting their Five Star Quality Rating System for Nursing Homes (see here). They even provide an extensive analysis of how they arrive at their ratings (see here). The ratings are based on a complicated scoring system that involves multiple factors including: both…
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Covid Cases in Nursing Homes
Yesterday we stumbled on a new CMS dataset which provides a weekly accounting for Covid-19 infections and deaths in nursing homes. Strangely this report is not part of the more general set of nursing home reports that we currently retrieve. The data is supposedly reported weekly though it is not clear when it is published. …