Kansas Homes Still Needed to Participate in Staffing Survey

The American Health Care Association is nearing the completion of its 2009 Nursing Facility Staffing Survey.  Thank you to the 14.7% of Kansas homes who have completed this survey. This is a great start but we can do better. If you have not completed the survey, please take the time to complete it for receipt by Monday, December 20, 2010.  The goal of this survey is to provide statistics on retention, and turnover for advocacy purposes.  If the response rate for each state is sufficient, AHCA will be able to generate these statistics on a state level basis.  Please note that individual results will not be disclosed to any party.

Click here to see which homes have participated so far.

A PDF version of the survey may be found at:

http://www.ahcancal.org/research_data/staffing/Pages/default.aspx

Here are a few hints for completing the survey.  In Column A, the data for the total number of current employees as of December 31, 2009 can be obtained from the payroll report that includes the date of December 31, 2009.  In Column B, the total number of employees who had worked in the facility for 12 months or longer can be obtained from the final payroll report for 2009.  This payroll report may include the date of hire.  If the individual was employed in the last payroll report for 2009 (or on December 31, 2009) and had a hire date prior to January 1, 2009, then they would be included in the number provided in Column B.  In Column C, the total number of employees (whether full-time or part-time) during calendar year 2008 can be obtained from the W-2 information for 2009. 

Any questions regarding the completion of this survey may be directed to Mr. Jeffrey Liu at 202-898-2818, Ms. Lisa Matthews-Martin at 202-898-2824 or Mr. Bill Hartung at 202-898-2841.

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  AHCA Medicare RAC Website – Know Ahead of Time What The RACs are Up To!

AHCA has created a new webpage to keep you up-to-date on Medicare RAC SNF activity. The site is entitled “The Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) Program Information for SNFs.” 

The webpage, which can be found here http://www.ahcancal.org/facility_operations/MedicareRAC/Pages/default.aspx, is designed to provide you with timely information on the issues that the RAC will be looking at in each of the four RAC regions. Kansas is in region 4, currently the most active region.

 
Any issues to be reviewed by the RAC must have been first approved by CMS and posted to the RAC websites. Through this website, AHCA will cull all online postings of CMS Approved RAC SNF issues by RAC Region and provide them to you at one website. The staff indicates they will update the issue list at a minimum every Friday. I hope you will consistently check the approved issues of all four Regions on the AHCA website because it may be the case that issues approached for one RAC Region will quickly migrate to another.

The website provides information in the following categories: 

·        Types of Reviews

·        RAC Contractors

·        RAC Contact Information and CMS Approved Issues

·        CMS Key Sites

·        Helpful CMS Issuances 

If you have any questions or need any additional information, please contact AHCA staff members Elise Smith at 202-898-6305, esmith@ahca.org or Peggy Connorton 202-898-2833. Both Peggy and Elise also welcome suggestions for improvement of this site.  

Please note that AHCA will also have a Medicaid RAC website. They are working on the comments to the RAC Medicaid proposed rule due January and believe the program may be up and running some time after that.

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  KDOA Restates Position on Staff Completion of MDS 3.0 and CAAs

Representatives of KDOA and the Kansas Board of Nursing met this past month, October, 2010, and revised the position statement as to which facility staff are allowed to complete the MDS 3.0 and Care Area Assessments. Click here for a link to this document. This information replaces the handout provided at the KDOA MDS 3.0 trainings this past summer and that were passed out at AANAC certification trainings.

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  MDS 3.0 Update

KHCA has received important information from Kansas state RAI Coordinator Vera VanBruggen. Please see athe information below regarding MDS 3.0 software vendors and two important updates effective November 21, 2010:
Web Browser Update Required for QIES National Systems Access and Security Certificate Update

A call was held on November 18, 2010 for the software vendors for the MDS 3.0.

If your MDS 3.0 software vendor was not able to participate in the call, please share the following information with them. It is very critical that they be aware of the following two items:

1. All Vendors need to register at www.qtso.com/vendor.html
As of midnight 11/19/10 all the vendor information was going to be deleted out of the CMS system so all vendors need to re-register.

2. There is a Validation Utility Tool (VUT) that the vendors/providers can use to check their submission files before they send them to the national repository to see if it will be accepted. This is located at the same site listed above.

Also, attached is Questions and Answers document that was posted 11/2/2010.

Two Important Updates Effective November 21, 2010:

Web Browser Update Required for QIES National Systems Access and Security Certificate Update
TLS (Transport Layer Security) 1.0 Update
Effective November 21, 2010, the Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0 must be checked in your web browser in order to access QIES National Systems. This requirement applies to all parties that access QIES systems (MDS, OASIS, Swing Bed, IRF-PAI, etc.).
This change must be made to connect after November 21, 2010.
Note: You must have administrative rights to your workstation in order to update this value. If you do not have administrative rights, contact your IT support.

Security Certificate Update
Effective November 21, 2010, the Security Certificate will be updated. Users who use automatic Windows Update will accept the new Security Certificate without any issues.
Users who do not use automatic Windows Update will lose access to the CMS System until they perform the Windows Update that allows the new Security Certificate to be installed.Please see details in attached memo.

This memo will be posted to https://www.qtso.com.
If this information pertains to other state users, please forward as appropriate.
Thank you.

QIES Help Desk
help@qtso.com
888-477-7876
fax 888-477-7871

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  CMS Is Here to Help in the Transitions to Version 5010 and ICD-10

Have questions about the Version 5010 and ICD-10 transition?  CMS is here to help!  We have resources for providers, vendors, and payers to prepare for the transition.  Fact sheets available for educating staff and others about the transition include:

• The ICD-10 Transition: An Introduction
• Talking to Your Vendors About ICD-10 and Version 5010: Tips for Medical Practices
• Talking to Your Customers About ICD-10 and Version 5010: Tips for Software Vendors

Compliance timelines, materials from CMS-sponsored calls and conferences, links to resources, and the latest news are all available at http://www.cms.gov/ICD10.  Check back often for the latest information and updates, and to sign up for Version 5010 and ICD-10 e-mail updates

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