ACO REACH Model, SDOH and Post-Acute Analytics
April 21, 2022
By now you have likely heard of CMS’s Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (ACO REACH) Model. While priorities of the model include provider leadership, governance, and…
Predictive Analytics and Value-Based Care: Defining Value
February 18, 2022
Benefits to SNFs, their partners and the healthcare continuum We’ve covered predictive post-acute analytics in practice and tackling the challenges of the Triple-Aim. Now it’s time to bring it home…
Predictive Analytics and Value-Based Care: Tackling Triple Aim
February 9, 2022
Advanced post-acute analytics and value-based care Now that we’ve covered predictive post-acute analytics in practice, we move on to the topic of tackling the challenges of the Triple-Aim. This series…
Predictive Analytics and Value-Based Care: Analytics in Practice
February 4, 2022
Improving post-acute outcomes and care team experience I recently participated in a panel discussion that explored the value that predictive analytics bring to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), their partners, and…
An Innovative Approach to Value-based Incentives Improves Patient Care and Outcomes for Nursing Facilities
January 14, 2022
Staying competitive and relevant in the world of healthcare is a constant battle as the landscape is always changing. One of the biggest shake-ups in the past few years is…
The Power of Pairing EHR and MDS Data Together for SNFs
November 29, 2021
In today’s value-based care environment, long-term post-acute analytics (LTPAC) have become essential for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) to succeed, stay competitive and achieve the objectives of the Triple Aim for…
PDPM: Looking Back, Transforming Tomorrow
September 9, 2021
The transition to the patient driven payment model (PDPM) over the last two years has not been without its challenges. COVID-19 shifted SNFs’ priorities away from the PDPM transition during…
Four Benefits of Post-Acute Analytics for ACOs
August 31, 2021
We all want better outcomes for our patients accompanied by a lower cost of care. As healthcare becomes ever more complex, it is often difficult to tell where we need…
Unlock SNF Quality Measure Data Sets to Improve Care Value
August 3, 2021
Providing patients or members with the highest-quality care while ensuring you have a handle on your high-cost drivers and liability risks is key to delivering the best in outcomes and…
Ten Tips to Get Ready for the October 1 Proposed Rule for SNFs
July 21, 2021
Coming off the rollercoaster that has been the last 17 months, we are breathing a collective sigh of relief with most of our staff and patients vaccinated. And, while the…
3 Ways to Stop Losing on MDS Assessments
July 9, 2021
Back in 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rolled out the Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) with the goal of better aligning payment rates with the costs…
SNF Network Leverages Data to Drive Change and Real Results
May 3, 2021
No matter what a SNF’s goals are, data has the potential to help them meet and exceed those goals. However, the operative word here is ‘potential.’ Many SNFs are fully…
CIN Uses Data to Drive Success in SNF Network
April 19, 2021
No matter what specific discipline you’re in, being in the medical field teaches you the importance of using data to treat patients better. But what sometimes gets overlooked is that…
Rub-a-dub-dub – More than a Scrub! Mastering the MDS for SNFs
April 1, 2021
We’re now well past the one-year mark of the shift from RUGs to the patient driven payment model (PDPM), which means it’s probably time for an annual checkup. And if…
Do Increases in Patient Acuity Present a Problem for SNFs?
March 17, 2021
Do Intentional and Unintentional Increases in Patient Acuity Present a Problem for SNFs in 2021? One of the best ways to educate ourselves and prepare to plan for success is…
Early PDPM Numbers Aren’t What SNFs Expected: Problematic?
March 10, 2021
Ask any middle school student in a science class how many variables you should change when testing something new and you’ll get a resounding chorus of the right answer—one. In…
Power of Post-Acute Partnerships in the Midst of a Pandemic
March 5, 2021
Though I live in Massachusetts today, my childhood and early college years were spent in Maryland. It has a special place in my heart and many of my family still…
PDPM Year 1 – Dive into Your Rate Driver Data
January 25, 2021
A year ago we thought PDPM would be the biggest challenge of 2020. But COVID is not a compliance smokescreen and the devil is in the details and the details…
Value-Based Payment – Time for a Return on Investments
November 11, 2020
You get what you pay for. For years, CMS paid for volume and that’s exactly what they got- lots of rehab, lots of tests, lots of specialists; lots of volume….
Strategies for Combating Unfavorable PDPM Trends
October 26, 2020
This is the final blog in our 3-part series focused on looking back at PDPM data thus far so you can plan. Part 1 focuses on key SNF data; Part…
Compliance & Risk & PDPM – Oh My!
October 12, 2020
This is the second blog in a series focused on looking back at PDPM data thus far so you can plan. Part 1 focuses on key SNF data; Part 3 focuses…
Key Insights in SNF Data from the Transition to PDPM
September 28, 2020
This is the first blog in a series focused on looking back at PDPM data thus far so you can plan. Part 2 focuses on compliance and risk. Part 3…
Why It’s Important to Apply for the AHCA/NCAL Quality Awards amidst COVID-19
September 25, 2020
Ah, September…the days are getting shorter, the weather is getting cooler (in the North, at least) and the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) has opened their…
QASP Best Practices to Kick Off the Program Year
September 22, 2020
PointRight began assisting customers in California with QASP in 2017 but the QASP program has been around for over 5 years. The impetus came from our relationship with California Association…
Busting the “One Database” Myth
September 17, 2020
For decades, companies behind large, integrated transactional systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERPs), Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Managed Care Applications have disseminated the notion that having all data…
Don’t Forget About the October 1, 2020 MDS Updates
August 17, 2020
UPDATE Summer 2021: Looking for the most recent proposed changes for SNFs? Check out Ten Tips to Get Ready for the October 1 Proposed Rule for SNFs. As with most…
SNFs: To Be Ready for What’s Next, Watch The Hospitals
August 3, 2020
By Theresa Edelstein, MPH, LNHA New Jersey Hospital Association By Pam Kaiser, MSN, RN PointRight As states are moving through the different phases of reopening, hospital groups are looking to…
Here’s My New Normal Wish List for SNFs. What’s Yours?
July 29, 2020
Throughout history, world events have impacted society and significantly altered our daily life. World War II, for example, created an opportunity for women to work in factories and other traditionally…
SNF Infection Control Practices: The Pressure is On
June 23, 2020
CMS announced plans for expansion of enforcement activities to improve provider accountability and sustained compliance of infection control practices in a June 1 CMS Memo. The memo also reinforced their…
Nursing Homes: What I Wish More People Knew
June 11, 2020
Those within the nursing home community “bubble” understand that skilled nursing facilities are delivering the best care under these extreme circumstances just as their acute care partners are doing. So…
COVID-19: MDS Coding and Documentation FAQs
June 4, 2020
In May we opened up our Advanced Training session, “COVID-19: MDS Coding and Documentation FAQs,” to the public and we received a volley of great questions that we didn’t have…
Why am I a Skilled Nursing advocate?
June 2, 2020
What’s in a name? Well, sometimes your name can define your calling. For me, it’s no coincidence that my initials are SNF. I’ve been working within or directly supporting Skilled…
SNF Three Day Waiver- What It Means to Hospitals
April 22, 2020
With so many waivers and flexibilities being released by CMS in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping current with those that impact your provider setting can be challenging. Sometimes those…
Survey Reprieve During the Pandemic – for Some Anyway
March 30, 2020
CMS’s rapid fire memos on COVID-19 over the last two weeks surely leave many facility staff confused and overwhelmed. Finding time to sit, read and interpret these memos may be…
COVID-19: 5 Things Nurse Assessment Coordinators Need to Know
March 25, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) hard. Along with the potential health impact on your residents, staff, and families, there have been several regulatory updates issued by…
On COVID-19, We Stand With You
March 20, 2020
Thank you for taking care of the most vulnerable among us – our parents, our grandparents and many other loved ones in all our families. We are so incredibly fortunate…
Managing Risks in Your Network of SNFs Amidst COVID-19
March 12, 2020
Hospitals and REITs must proactively communicate and perform their due diligence to manage risk and support partners and stakeholders. Skilled Nursing facilities (SNFs) find themselves under the magnifying glass as…
COVID-19 Preparedness for SNFs: Focus on the Fundamentals
March 10, 2020
What do top-level athletes, no matter what sport they play, have in common? They never stop drilling the fundamentals of the game. As COVID-19 (a.k.a. coronavirus) continues to spread into…
COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Response & Resources
Like many healthcare professionals, our PointRight team is hard at work educating and preparing to meet the challenge of COVID-19. We are committed to doing everything within our reach to…
The Big So What
March 5, 2020
Asking More Questions, A New Year’s Resolution One of our mantras here at PointRight is “So What?” Whenever a colleague brings up an issue, observation or factoid in a meeting,…
If Stellar Star Ratings Can’t Keep Your Doors Open…
March 3, 2020
The latest news from McKnight’s and Skilled Nursing News covering the Leading Age report Nursing Home Closures and Trends June 2015-June 2019 was disheartening. All the work that goes into…
Put Your Post-Acute Data in the Driver’s Seat
February 13, 2020
Take a crash course in post-acute data and network management best practices for Hospitals and ACOs. All stakeholders in a collaborative or network need to work as partners and use…
Minimum Data Set (MDS) Changes for October 1st, 2020
February 3, 2020
UPDATE Summer 2021: A lot has changed since this blog was published in February 2020, including the planned MDS updates for October 1, 2020 (FY2021). Now here we are preparing…
Clinical Documentation and KPIs – What ACOs Should Know
January 16, 2020
By Paola DiNatale, MSN, RN, NHA Why is it important for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to understand the connection between clinical documentation and key performance metrics? — ‘If it hasn’t…
I Want My Pain Quality Measures
November 14, 2019
In the 80s we wanted our MTV; now in 2020, QAPI program managers want their pain quality measures. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in October that…
Veteran’s Day Every Day
November 11, 2019
This year on Veteran’s Day, on behalf of the PointRight team, I wanted to take a moment to recognize the people who serve veterans every day. We’re a proud…
New Discharge Planning Rule Impacts More than Just Hospitals
November 5, 2019
How does the new hospital discharge planning rule impact relationships between hospitals and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs)? Ignoring key regulatory changes in other health care provider settings is a dangerous…
AHCA/NCAL Convention – Highlights & Quality Spotlight
October 31, 2019
If you were unable to attend this year’s AHCA/NCAL Convention & Expo, check out our observations and favorite moments from this year’s event. The show’s theme centered around healthcare ‘superheroes’…
The New Hospital Discharge Planning Rule
October 23, 2019
PointRight Helps Hospitals Comply September 26, 2019, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Final Rule addressing acute care to post-acute care (PAC) discharge planning. There are…
PDPM Reimbursement Dollars
October 14, 2019
Keep What Your Teams Are Working Hard to Achieve In one of my past roles, I was a Corporate Compliance Officer for a long-term and post-acute care provider. I still…
Best-in-Class Analytics + EHR
September 30, 2019
Have you cut the cord with your cable provider yet? If you are like most of us, the answer is no. If anything, your cable company is finding more ways…
Executing Your PDPM Plan (It’s Time!)
September 24, 2019
Over the last 12 months, skilled nursing facility (SNF) providers spent considerable time and resources preparing interdisciplinary teams for the anxiously awaited Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM). PDPM is the…
REITs: Connecting Clinical Record Documentation and Risk Mitigation
September 4, 2019
By Paola DiNatale Healthcare providers understand too well that the patient’s clinical record documentation is based on the clinical situation, however too often we get trapped in the mindset of…
Is Your Documentation PDPM-Ready?
July 30, 2019
As Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) prepare for the implementation of the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) on October 1, 2019, much of the focus of training has been on diagnosis coding. …
PDPM: We’ve Talked about SNFs – What about Hospitals?
July 14, 2019
In the past, changes to the payment system for Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) impacted other health care sectors. When the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) went into effect, many…
The Changing Tides of Compliance under PDPM
May 21, 2019
Since the CMS Final Rule announcing the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) was released, there has been much speculation among SNF providers and industry experts about what compliance will look like…
The Big Thaw: Five-Star Update
March 14, 2019
CMS is “thawing out” the freeze on Five-Star Ratings effective April 2019. We were all expecting the thaw this spring, and CMS doesn’t disappoint! Remember that spring showers bring May…
Five-Star’s Early Adolescence and the Growing Pains that Go Along with It
January 15, 2019
by Steven Littlehale December 2018 marked Five Star’s ten-year “birthday.” When you read its birth certificate, you’ll see its given name is: “Five-Star Quality Rating System,” though interestingly enough, the…
Readmissions, Care Transitions, and Value-based Programs
January 9, 2019
If it seems that hospitals have been focused on readmission rates for years, they have. Starting in fiscal year 2013, hospitals have been penalized for readmission rates for Medicare beneficiaries…
CEO Steven Scott Looks Ahead to 2019 – PDPM & More
December 18, 2018
Thank you PointRight clients, partners and friends for a great 2018. It’s been quite a year for our industry to say the least. Wild fires in California turned hero care-givers into…
“Happy Birthday Dear Five-Star, Happy Birthday to You!”
December 12, 2018
We are celebrating Five-Star’s 10th year birthday this December 2018. Over the last ten years, Five-Star has certainly matured considerably, and if you believe it measures quality, then you also must…