Today, in advance of the approaching holiday season, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is urging nursing home staff, residents and visitors to follow established guidelines for visitation and adherence to the core principles of infection prevention. These guidelines include remaining six feet apart from individuals, wearing a … Read More
CMS COVID-19 county positivity rates posted November 17, 2020
CMS has posted an updated COVID-19 county positivity rate spreadsheet – November 17, 2020. Remember that you must test residents and staff based on your county’s positivity rate. If you need help to determine the testing frequency required, access those guidelines. Archived county positivity rates are found here. Want to keep up with … Read More
CMS releases nursing home COVID-19 training data with urgent call to action
On Tuesday, November 17, 2020 CMS publicly recognized the 1,092 nursing homes at which 50% or more of their staff have completed CMS training designed to help staff combat the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in nursing homes. CMS applauds these facilities for taking this critical step to equip … Read More
CMS to retire the original compare tools on December 1st
CMS will retire the original Compare Tools on December 1st. Use Medicare.gov’s Care Compare to find and compare health care providers. In early September, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released Care Compare on Medicare.gov, which streamlines our eight original health care compare tools. Since then, you’ve had the opportunity … Read More
Updated toolkit for NHs using point-of-care devices for SARS-COV-2 testing
The Toolkit for Nursing Homes Using Point-of-Care SARS-COV-2 Testing was updated November 10, 2020. Those updates are: Added HHS BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 Ag Card link to the Background section from press release. Updated the Nursing Home Data section to include specifics for the different antigen tests available under the HHS programs. Added CMS … Read More