States are primarily responsible for ensuring that nursing homes meet requirements for transparency, quality, staffing, and reporting. Effective November 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires increased transparency in nursing home operations, but states need support developing new programs and policies to respond to this new requirement.
On March 7, members of the U.S. Senate HELP Committee and Senate Special Committee on Aging issued a request for information (RFI) related to the upcoming reauthorization of the Older Americans Act (OAA). The RFI includes four general questions and four targeted questions.
Responses are due to the Senate HELP Committee by Thursday, March 21, 2024. Responses should be emailed to OAA@help.senate.gov.
On March 4, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a Public Notice announcing that the last fully funded month for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) benefit is April 2024.
Join the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN) for an upcoming panel discussion to learn how employers can partner with public agencies, nonprofits, education institutions, and service providers to hire and keep workers with and without disabilities. In this webinar, innovative leaders will share their approaches to developing successful, high-impact partnerships.
Participants will discover strategies to help:
Establish and nurture partnerships.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) encourages the submission of improvement activities for consideration in future years of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). The MIPS Annual Call for Improvement Activities process allows clinicians, professional associations, and medical societies that represent clinicians, researchers, consumer groups, and others to identify and submit activities.
CMS is looking for the following when considering new activities:
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is hosting an ongoing webinar series, providing an opportunity for stakeholders to learn about topics that can help support consumers who wish to enroll in the Marketplace. Interested parties are encouraged to register for the 2024 Marketplace Assister Webinar Series on the Registration for Technical Assistance Portal (REGTAP) for insights into important themes to aid as an assister.
On February 29, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final part one guidance for the new Medicare Prescription Payment Plan. The guidance focuses on outlining the necessary operational requirements for Medicare Part D plan sponsors as they prepare for the new program and addresses topics such as identifying Medicare Part D enrollees likely to benefit from the program, the opt-in process for Part D enrollees, program participant protections, and the data collection needed to evaluate the program.
The Better Care Playbook has scheduled an upcoming webinar, made possible through the Seven Foundation Collaborative, describing how the Camden Coalition has evolved its programs in recent years to more effectively care for adults with complex health and social needs by integrating lessons from this evidence.
National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (Consumer Voice) is seeking proposals for conference sessions for their 2024 Consumer Voice Conference. Consumer Voice is looking for sessions that create an engaging, informative conference agenda that provides resources, tools, opportunities for discussion, and strategies our attendees can incorporate in their life and/or advocacy.
Proposals should include:
Concrete advocacy strategies.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is hosting an upcoming webinar to educate providers as to current changes focused on the goal of achieving a full Annual Payment Update (APU) in the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program (QRP).
