Sweeping Changes At CMS
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced sweeping regulatory changes today for nursing homes and skilled nursing providers. Effective immediately, nursing homes will have to test staff and offer testing to all residents, while labs and nursing facilities using point-of-care testing must report diagnostic test results. Additionally, nursing homes must provide tests to residents during all outbreaks, or when residents show any symptoms of COVID-19.
Potential termination from the Medicare and Medicaid!
Surveyors can now cite facilities for non-compliance with the new regulations. The enforcement of sanctions will be based on the severity of non-compliance. Fines for non-compliance will start at $400 per day and can run as high as $8,000, with termination from the Medicare and Medicaid programs the ultimate penalty. Providers can also face a denial of payment for new admissions.
Solving these issues with NetSolutions
The NetSolutions Point-of-Care allows direct caregivers to document signs and symptoms of a possible respiratory infection such as loss of taste or smell, non-productive cough, sneezing, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing.
These items, coupled with our clinical dashboard, display residents with those symptoms in real-time. Our eAssignments system allows for real-time communication between caregivers and providers and when used, can efficiently keep staff up to date on resident conditions and staff compliance.
In addition, with ABILITY INFECTIONWATCH combined with our NetSolutions clinical Suite interface, you can more closely monitor symptoms and cases of COVID-19 with your residents and visitors, track your infection control strategies and be ready for CMS inspections.