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Earlier this week, LeadingAge Minnesota offered a one-hour webinar featuring Covid-19 communications experiences from Bethesda in Willmar, Emerald Crest Memory Care in Burnsville as well as a review of the modified visitation guidelines by LeadingAge Nurse Consultant Kari Everson

Earlier this week the LTC Imperative completed our second short, one-day survey, which looked at employee and resident testing. Testing is an important aspect of containing outbreaks during the pandemic and the survey results will help inform our advocacy on testing policies and payment.

Being stressed out is a natural reaction to the extraordinary situation we find ourselves in during this pandemic, but after six months we are all struggling with exhaustion and chronic stress.

Nursing homes will be required to test staff for COVID-19, and offer testing to residents, under an Interim Final Rule released by CMS August 25. All laboratories conducting COVID-19 testing and reporting patient-specific results

2020 Annual Meeting & Leadership Forum
September 16-18

This Friday, August 21 is the early registration deadline for LeadingAge Minnesota’s virtual Annual Meeting & Leadership Forum. The annual leadership conference spans three mornings

Please join us for the next monthly HUD Member Regional Conference Call, scheduled for August 20 from 12-1 p.m. CST.

Join providers across the Nation to call on Congress to provide immediate relief to aging services providers.

We are severely disappointed that Congress did not reach an agreement on the next COVID-19 relief package.

With Minnesota facing a projected $4.7 billion budget shortfall, Gov. Tim Walz tapped a familiar face and state budget expert, Jim Schowalter, to return as commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget.

In a special session last week, the Senate and House passed (and the Governor later signed) Senate File 1, which appropriates more than $20M in state CARES Act relief funds to provide retention grants to adult day services providers to address the impact of business interruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One-hour training sessions on COVID-19 critical topics such infection prevention, early detection, and managing staffing challenges are now available through the new

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise across Minnesota, we have developed a COVID-19 External Communications toolkit to help communicate with the media and other external audiences about the importance of prevention precautions as well as your plan for visitation modification.

On August 17, 2020 CMS released a memo, QSO-20-35-ALL, describing expansion of survey activity and new guidance around enforcement.

LeadingAge Minnesota recently learned that Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) is proposing to return to fully-compliant, fingerprint-based background studies process sometime in the near future.

Strategies for Diffusing Challenging Situations
Webinar - Friday, August 14: 9 – 10 a.m.

2020 Virtual Connect Conference
August 19 – 20

2020 Annual Meeting & Leadership Forum
September 16-18

MN licensed LTC administrators interested in kick starting their earned clock hours for the 2020/21 licensure cycle are in luck. The following LeadingAge Minnesota virtual events have been approved for clock hours.

As we have pivoted in the past several months to focus on COVID-19 and put practices in place to combat this virus, we are reminded of our Safe Care for Seniors pledge for respect, safety and dignity and the shared commitment we made together to prevent harm in the course of caregiving.

With the release of the Minnesota Department of Health guidance on visitation modification on Monday, you’ll find new tools in our COVID-19 Resource Library.

The results of the Long-Term Care Imperative’s annual nursing facility financial indicators survey were recently prepared by CliftonLarsonAllen. The 2019 data shows that financial performance continued a trend of improvement

On August 3, HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) released a fully updated set of NSPIRE Inspection Standards for the physical inspection demonstration program.

Earlier this year, the Minnesota Department of Health waived the 8-hour training requirement for Paid Feeding Assistants, in accordance with a waiver from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 

The Metropolitan Council has issued Metro Mobility COVID-19 safety measures. The safety measures cover topics including service, fare payment, riders, drivers, bus cleaning, and more.

As part of the DHS Waiver Reimagine project, DHS has requested public comments on Summer 2020 federal waiver plan amendments before they are submitted to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for approval. These amendments apply to the following waivers:

The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Division of DHS is partnering with State Services for the Blind's Aging Eyes Initiative. Through this partnership older adults with both hearing and vision loss can access specific vision loss-related and assistive listening devices.
 

This week the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) released long-awaited recommendations on modifying visitation policies in aging services settings. The recommendations are effective August 29, 2020 and apply both to nursing homes and housing with services/assisted living settings.
 

Leading Change. Changing Lives. That is more than our promise. It is our purpose. During our recent LeadingAge Minnesota Board of Directors meeting, we re-committed to positive and lasting social change through not only our words but our actions.
 

The Annual Meeting & Leadership Forum is virtual this year and much of the educational content focuses on strategic approaches related to COVID-19. Back-to-back sessions on Thursday, Sept. 17 will help leaders explore financial scenario planning in the COVID-19 world. 

This year has taught us the devastating impact when human connection is lost. Dr. John Brose, Director of the Associated Clinic of Psychology, and Jane Danner, Director of Resident Engagement and Development for Volunteers of America, are teaming up for the first time on Aug. 20 to deliver Combatting the Negative Impact of Isolation and Loneliness of Resident Wellbeing. This general session kicks off the second day of the two-day Connect Conference. 

Strategies for Diffusing Challenging Situations, a webinar on Aug. 14, will explore practical strategies designed to help staff diffuse the highly and emotionally charged situations so that difficult conversations about what can be done occur and enable the parties to move forward together.  

LeadingAge MN is working on a new resource to help members plan, implement and communicate visitor modifications based on guidance the Minnesota Department of Health is the process of finalizing,