NEGA - YOUR "Day to Day" INFORMATION EXCHANGE

Much is gained at educational meetings that focus on topics of concern for the moment and project ahead to resolve emerging problems.

NEGA provides the option for more viable "day to day exchange"and for action at a moments notice through membership communications with one another.

Periodically a listing of members will be circulated to all members. This communications process may develop greater commonality in membership interests.

Apathy and inaction by the membership may bring any organization into decline. This is a time for a special rebirth as the Association rapidly approaches the 50th year of its founding!

ABOUT "GERONTOLOGY TOPICS" - OUR NEWSLETTER

A quarterly NEGA Newsletter and periodic special supplements are mailed to dues paying members to update them on key information and events in New England and nationally that have a bearing on their service objectives, and other concerns

The publication Gerontology Topics is planned to provide articles and features on current topics in a broad variety of aging concerns, to both individual professional and institutional members.

Recent issues have covered topics such as:"The Bottom Line for long Term Care," "NEGA Guidance for New NHA Licensees," "When to Get 'Ready for Retirement?" Don't miss an issue! Join today.

Assistance shall he provided to members interested in developing articles of interest reflecting research findings or other areas for publication in the field of long-term care.

HOT TOPICS: MEMBERS' PROBLEMS & PRIORITIES

Everyone providing services to the aging is concerned with the question of quality care.

At the same time a continuing shortage of resources in even the best of facilities presents an almost insurmountable dilemma. We would like to learn the ways and means by which our members have coped with some of the chronic problems which are always with us, in the quest for providing better care within the reality of limited resources.

Share your ideas through GERONTOLOGY TOPICS. If you wish your identity may be kept confidential! We welcome and use commentary from our members.

One way of partially accommodating to the harsh competition of nursing service "agencies" has been shared for us through our membership as follows: It has been achieved by greater flexibility by the individual facility.

The "Nursing Service Agency" generally provides contract staff to facilities for one shift at a time and at a very high premium over the allowances paid to most employees. If a call in option were provided to staff who did not wish to make a full time or regular commitment a match could be reached between facility needs and the convenience of the part time or periodic staff member.

In time such staff will know the facility and its patients and function more efficiently than randomly assigned Agency Staff Members. Cost to the facility would be lowered and recruitment could be facilitated over the long run.

With cost control becoming more and more important it would be well to see if staff members are aware of the intangibles they receive, such as free coffee or reduced cost meals. lnformation provided to your staff for their personal fiscal well being at home such as budgeting and no cost cafeteria benefit plans, may pay handsome rewards in employee morale.

If diversion of costs to staffing agencies might be shared with your own staff through "in-house" staffing incentives to cover special needs; both the staff and the facility will benefit!

NEW ENGLAND NEWS

* Reprinted from Mass Aging:

The Digest is published twice each month. Please share this issue with your staff.

Nursing Homes

• On Wednesday, December 21, the Department of Public Health (DPH) announced the results of its first statewide nursing home satisfaction survey, which found high levels of satisfaction with nursing home care across the Commonwealth. More than 16,000 family members or other responsible parties of nursing home residents responded to the mailed survey, representing an impressive 64% response rate. At a press conference to announce the results, Commissioner of DPH Paul Cote voiced his pleasure with the results and stated that, “I don’t see these results as doing anything other than making people feel that the money that they are spending on nursing homes right now is money well spent.” MassAging members scored particularly well on the survey results, averaging higher levels of satisfaction compared with the statewide averages. Below is a summary of the evaluations comparing the average MassAging member nursing home with the statewide averages (scale ranges from 1 – 5 with 1 being very dissatisfied and 5 being very satisfied): 

Category Statewide Average /  MassAging Average

Overall Satisfaction 4.25 / 4.50

Resident Needs Being Met 4.10 / 4.37

Staff and Administration 4.18 / 4.36

Physical Environment 4.15 / 4.43

Activities 3.84 / 4.11

Personal Care 4.08 / 4.32

Food and Meals 3.94 / 4.20

Personal Rights 4.09 / 4.33

Additional information about the results including facility specific averages can be found on the DPH web site, www.mass.gov/dph under What’s New and Nursing Home Satisfaction Program. Nursing facilities were also mailed their own detailed results last week. The Department is also planning to post more detailed information about the results, which will allow consumers (and providers) to compare results for specific facilities, sometime in 2006. Plans are also underway for conducting another survey in 2006. If you have any questions, please contact Elissa Sherman at the MassAging office, (617.244.2999 or at esherman@MassAging.org.

Housing

• HUD recently released a study completed in August of 2004 evaluating the Mark to Market program. The study evaluates the overall implementation of the program, including both its cost savings to the federal government and its degree of success in addressing the needs of the owners, the residents, and federal government. The evaluation provided detailed tables about the properties, residents, and changes in rents as well as case studies from around the United States. One of the study's more interesting findings is the need for exception rents in so many restructurings if the housing is to be preserved after the mark to market restructuring. To read the evaluation go to: www.huduser.org/publications/PUBASST/evalm2m.html

State Agencies and on Beacon Hill

• The Commonwealth Corporation has announced the availability of new funding for the Extended Care Career Ladder Initiative (ECCLI). This new round of funding will be for nursing facilities that have not received ECCLI funding in prior rounds. Funding will be available up to $150,000 per project for CNA Career Ladder Training, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and a variety of other training and workforce supports. In order to be eligible for this new round of funding, facilities that have not previously received ECCLI funding will first need to submit a Notice of Intent to Comm Corp by January 20th. Facilities that do not submit a Notice of Intent by January 20 will not be eligible  to apply for funding. Beginning in early February, Comm Corp will hold a series of technical assistance sessions and full applications for funding will be due on March 28th. The announcement from Comm Corp and the Notice of Intent form that must be submitted to Comm Corp by January 20, 2006 has been posted to the MassAging web site www.MassAging.org under Members’ Only, Public Policy and What’s New. For additional information about ECCLI, go to http://www.commcorp.org/programs/eccli/index.html

• The Division of Health Care Finance and Policy (DHCFP) will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, January 11th at 10:00 am to hear testimony on proposed amendments to regulations governing maximum prices that temporary nursing agencies can charge health care facilities effective February 12, 2006. A copy of the hearing notice and the proposed regulations can be found on the DHCFP web site, www.mass.gov/dhcfp under the link for Public Hearings.

Federal Agencies and On Capitol Hill

• It looks like Congress will not be sending its budget reconciliation bill to the White House before the New Year. Late last week, the U.S. Senate made technical changes to the budget bill, S. 1932, which requires another vote by the House in order to get the bill to the White House. The House did meet late in the week, but the leadership decided that there would not be any recorded votes. Since the Minority leadership insisted that a recorded vote be held on the budget, that vote will not be held until the House reconvenes next year. The House now plans to defer any legislative activity until January 31, so it could be some time before the vote on the budget is held. A summary of the budget reconciliation bill, developed by AAHSA staff is posted to the MassAging web site www.MassAging.org under Members’ Only, Public Policy, What’s New. • The White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) wrapped up two weeks ago with a major emphasis on technology. AAHSA's Center for Aging Services Technologies' (CAST) Imagine Pavilion received national and international recognition for showcasing current and future technologies that will help our nation meet the needs of an aging population. Thousands of delegates, three Cabinet secretaries, and more than 50 media representatives attended the pavilion to learn how technology can transform aging. AAHSA CEO, Larry Minnix gave a personal tour of the pavilion to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and Administration on Aging head Josefina Carbonell; and, AAHSA had a visit from Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and representatives of other congressional offices. There was significant national media coverage. In closing, one of the final speakers said that, "technology will be the legacy of this WHCoA." In addition, more than half of the 50 final resolutions adopted at the decennial White House Conference on Aging last week related to AAHSA's Five Big Ideas and the elements of Quality First. For more information, go to www.aahsa.org. 

Medicare Part D – Prescription Drug Benefit

• It has been brought to the attention of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Prescription Drug Program officials that some nursing facilities have distributed letters to patients falsely asserting that CMS has placed a requirement on facilities to contract only with long-term care (LTC) pharmacies that currently meet all of the Performance and Service Criteria for LTC Network Providers under Medicare Part D. This is causing some LTC facilities to exclude some pharmacies from servicing Part D residents in their LTC facilities. CMS has stated that this is an inappropriate reading of the CMS requirements and refers providers to the "Long-Term Care (LTC) Convenient Access Standard Statement" which states: "…. any pharmacy - whether it is a LTC or retail pharmacy - that can meet the ten performance and service criteria outlined in our March 2005 LTC Guidance and is willing to accept any other standard contracting terms and conditions established by the plan for its network pharmacies can participate as an LTC network pharmacy. As clarified in previous guidance, this means that network LTC pharmacies must have the capability to meet the performance and service criteria, either directly or through a subcontractor. It does not mean that prospective LTC network pharmacies must show that they currently provide such services or that they could provide all these service directly. The actual services that must be provided by the LTC network pharmacy will depend on the specific needs of the specific LTC facilities serviced by the pharmacy."