News

Medication management continues to be a frequently cited tag for Comprehensive Home Care surveys. Four of the 19 medication tags are in the top 10 most frequently cited almost 50 percent of the time. The October Assisted Living/Home Care Nurse Leader Network (ALNET) meetings will focus on medication management and provide information and resources to help you remain in compliance. 

The massive shift that is about to take place in Medicare will affect hundreds of thousands of Minnesota enrollees, including some of the seniors you serve. Medicare Cost Plans will end in December 2018 and seniors affected by this change will need to enroll in new Medicare coverage for 2019. To help ensure a seamless transition, the State of Minnesota has developed helpful publications that you can share with your residents and families.  

LeadingAge Minnesota is working with the Minnesota Department of Health and other stakeholders to develop another series of provider-surveyor joint training sessions for care centers. Specific locations are still being finalized, but the dates are confirmed: Oct. 30, Oct. 31, Nov. 1, Nov. 8 and Nov. 9. There will be two metro sessions, and one each in northern, central and southern Minnesota. 

The first 90 days of a new job can be the hardest, especially for nursing assistants. A Peer Mentor program has helped Grand Village in Grand Rapids increase their 90-day retention rate to 86 percent and decrease nursing assistant turnover by 20 percent in one year.  

A hearing last week in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight explored whether federal regulations for nursing homes were tough enough. 

The Nominating Committee has presented its 2019 Nomination Slate for the LeadingAge Minnesota Board of Directors and recipients of Lifetime Honorary Memberships. Members will vote on the slate at this year’s Annual Business Meeting that takes place on Thursday, Sept. 20 from 7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. in the Viking Room at Madden’s in Brainerd. See the slate and learn more about the candidates: 

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has announced the adoption of the revised Minnesota Food Code that will be effective Jan. 1, 2019. We have invited MDH to join our Housing Committee meeting on Sept. 13 to share more details on the revised code and its implementation.   

The Minnesota Department of Health is soliciting grant proposals from providers of adult day care, home care, and housing with services to provide educational scholarships for their employees. Applications are due by Friday, Oct. 19. 

Attracting and retaining employees has been a significant challenge in recent years, and retention rates are a key indicator of the ability of care centers to meet staffing needs in a competitive labor market and to provide the continuity of care that is necessary for good client outcomes. In 2017, retention was relatively good news in that the gains that occurred in 2016 were maintained in the most recent year. 

Looking for tools to turn your standard new employee orientation into an engaging onboarding experience? Watch this 7-minute video to learn about an exciting new resource that is free to LeadingAge Minnesota members – our Onboarding Toolkit. 

Staffing shortages continue to be a primary challenge for care centers, which are experiencing increased staffing ratios and higher use of temporary poll staff based on an analysis of data LeadingAge Minnesota completed on the 2017 costs reports filed with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS).  

Working with local high schools can provide some relief in filling positions and open shifts—and it can create a potential future pipeline for staff. Tips for successful outreach to schools are outlined in Solving the Workforce Puzzle: Lesson Learned from 42 Workforce Solutions Grants: Year One.  

The new AgingServicesJobs.Org platform continues to receive upgrades as the vendor, WorkFountain, follows a continuous improvement process. 

If you are a Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) provider not yet compliant with the HCBS Settings Rule, two new assurance templates from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) will help you meet attestation requirements and get in compliance with the new standards. 

Three new reports explore the characteristics and migration routes of foreign-born workers and the benefits and challenges associated with an expanding foreign-born workforce in the field of aging services. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published a final rule with the new Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) PPS rates effective for the year starting Oct. 1. We have calculated the base SNF rates for all regions of Minnesota. 

High voter turnout on primary night led to a few surprises and many potential “firsts” in Minnesota election history. 

LeadingAge Minnesota members can now register for a free webinar for that will help care centers get ready for the new payment model that will replace RUGs. Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) for SNFs is Set to Go: Now What? takes place Wednesday, Aug. 22 from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. 

The Office of Health Facility Complaints (OHFC) has cleared the backlog of maltreatment cases for elders, vulnerable adults and their families from 2017 and continues to successfully complete initial reviews for all reports within two days. 

Registered Nurse hourly rates increased by 3.1 percent while Licensed Practical Nurse rates increased by 2.43 percent, according to the 2018-2019 Nursing Home Salary and Benefits Report published by Hospital & Healthcare Compensation in cooperation with LeadingAge.