Jon Covault, age 53, of Garnett, Kansas, passed away on Friday, March 18, 2011, at his home in Garnett.

Jon was born on October 13, 1957, at Humboldt, Nebraska, the son of Delmar and Jeannette (Howarth) Covault. He grew up on a dairy farm near Pawnee City, Nebraska. Jon attended school at Table Rock, graduating high school there, 1976. He attended one year at Bob Jones University, and graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1982.

He was united in marriage to Pam Heriford on September 29, 1984, in Kansas City, Missouri. This union was blessed with two daughters, Julie and Cara.

Following college Jon took a position with Vetter Health Services that lead him to South Dakota before moving to Garnett in 1985. Jon worked as the Administrator at Golden Heights in Garnett. He worked for Vetter Health Services for his entire career.

Jon was a member of the First Baptist Church, where he was a Deacon and musician; the Garnett Rotary Club; Kansas Healthcare Association (KHCA), serving in various roles including President; Kansas Adult Care Executive (KACE). Jon was a musician, and he enjoyed Sci-Fi movies and Star Trek, two of his loves included travelling and fine dining.

Jon was preceded in death by his father.

He is survived by his wife Pam Covault, of the home; two daughters, Julie Covault and Cara Covault, both of Lee's Summit, Missouri; his mother Jeannette Covault of Pawnee City; one sister, Sandy Klepper and her husband, Richard, of Osceola, Nebraska; one brother, Rodney Covault and his wife, Deanna, of Lincoln, Nebraska; and nieces, nephews and many friends.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Tuesday, March 22, 2011, at the Anderson County High School Auditorium, 1100 W. Highway 31, Garnett, Kansas. Burial will follow in the Garnett Cemetery. The family will greet friends from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday evening at the funeral home, 219 S. Oak, Garnett, Kansas. Memorial contributions may be made to the Vetter Foundation and left in care of the funeral home. Condolences may be left at www.feuerbornfuneral.com.

Home: Garnett, KS
Date of Death: March 18, 2011 Place of Birth: Humboldt, NE
Birthdate: October 13, 1957
Age: 53 Funeral Service: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 11:00 AM Anderson County High School Auditorium, Garnett, KS
Visitation: Monday, March 21, 2011 6:00 p.m to 8:00 p.m. at Feuerborn Family Funeral Service, Garnett, KS
Interment: Garnett Cemetery, Garnett, KS

Feuerborn Family Funeral Services
785-448-5411
219 S. Oak Street,
P.O. Box 408
Garnett, KS 66032 
 
 Email mail@feurerbornfuneral.com 

Kansas Health Care Association and Kansas Adult Care Home Executives have once again teamed up with Kansas Association of Homes and Services for the Aging to bring you free training to PREPARE for disasters. This is made possible by a grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Natural and man-made disasters directly impact the lives of residents living in our long-term care and assisted living communities. In this webinar, you will be introduced to a powerful new resource: PREPARE: Kansas Emergency and Disaster Preparedness Resource Manual, developed especially for long term care and assisted living Kansas communities. This manual has been mailed to your organization, at no cost to you, so you can have the manual with you as you participate in the webinar.  A two-part webinar series introduces this resource-rich manual, and offers an invitation to communities to participate in one-on-one consultations on some of the specific hazards that may put a community at risk.
 
Webinar One, provides an overview of PREPARE: Kansas, highlighting each section and familiarizing you with the tools to help your community develop its own Emergency Operations plans. Topics include risk assessment, Kansas hazards, functions (including evacuation and shelter-in-place), coordinating with community partners, and the Incident Command System. This webinar gives practical guidelines for implementing Kansas specific principles.

FREE WEBINAR
How to Use Your PREPARE: Kansas Manual
March 29, 10 – 11:30 am
To register for the March 29th webinar, download this instruction document.

A second webinar with additional information about one on one consultation opportunities will be held April 5, 2011. Look for registration information for that webinar in the coming weeks.

On March 4, 2011 Dave Halferty of KDOA presented a webinar explaining the cash flow and time lines for the Kansas Quality Care Assessment Act. The webinar was well attended with over 200 participants. For those that were not able to listen in, a recording was made and placed in archives. Please click here to access that recording. Please note, this recording is being hosted on the KAHSA website.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback announced today the launching of a new website that allows Kansans to submit their ideas on laws or regulations they believe should be considered for repeal, http://repealer.ks.gov/.

“The top priorities of my administration are to grow the state’s economy and get the more than 110,000 unemployed Kansans back to work,” Gov. Brownback said.  “With the help of Kansans, the Office of the Repealer is working to identify laws and regulations that are out of date, unreasonable, and burdensome.  State laws and regulations shouldn’t hinder opportunities for Kansans and Kansas businesses.”

Governor Brownback named Kansas Department of Administration Secretary Dennis Taylor as the state’s Repealer.

“My staff and I will run a cost-benefit analysis on each law or regulation that is submitted for review.  The focus of the review will be on consumer protection.  Laws picked for repeal will be sent to the originating body,” Sec. Taylor said.

Sec. Taylor and his staff will send a status update within 30 days of receiving a recommendation.  To view the new site or to submit a rule or regulation for review, please visit http://repealer.ks.gov/.

The Kansas Department on Aging is updating its administrative regulations that relate primarily to Older Americans Act, State General Fund, and CARE programs. The 60-day public comment period has begun and the public hearing on the proposals will be conducted on Tuesday, May 24, 2011, at 9:00 a.m. in the Kansas Department on Aging’s Office, 503 S. Kansas Ave., Topeka. The public notice, which includes instructions on submitting comments, and the proposed regulations, are available here.

Transmittal 141, CMS Manual System Pub 100-02 Medicare Benefit Policy, was released on March 2, 2011. This updates the hospice chapter of the Benefit Policy Manual, specifically based on changes to certification requirements and the Conditions of Participation, and includes minor technical edits. The transmittal can be accessed by clicking here.

Beginning March 23, 2011, the administrator of any facility that is going to close must notify the following individuals/entities 60 days prior to closure:
1) The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (Secretary);
2) The State long-term care ombudsman; and
3) Residents of the facility or other responsible parties
Additionally, a plan for the relocation of the residents must be included in the notice of closure.  This plan must be approved by the State.  The plan must include an assurance that the residents will be relocated to the most appropriate facility in terms of quality, services, and location, taking into consideration the needs, choice, and best interests of each resident. 

In instances where the State or the Secretary is terminating the facility’s participation in the Medicare and/or Medicaid programs, the Secretary will determine the appropriate date for notification of the entities identified above.

If a facility is voluntarily terminating participation in the Medicare or Medicaid program, notification must be made to CMS and include the intended date of termination.  If the facility is terminating  participation in the Medicare or Medicaid program due to closure, the notice must be made at least 60 days prior to the date of closure.

Administrator Sanctions:

Any administrator who fails to comply with the requirements is subject to the following:
• A minimum of $500 for the first offense.
• A minimum of $1,500 for the second offense.
• A minimum of $3,000 for the third and subsequent offenses.
As well, an administrator who fails to comply with the requirement may be subject to exclusion from  participation in any Federal health care program.

The interim final rule is attached and the pages on which the rule appears are 9511-9512.   Because this is an iterim final rule, it is possible that these regulations may change, after the comment period closes.   Please note:  Comments on this interim final rule are due on April 14.  If you would like to provide comments to be included in AHCA’s comments, please send them no later than April 5 to mailto:khca@khca.org?subject=closure%20comments.

One Survey and Certification Memo was released on the Relationship Between Civil Money Penalty Funds Paid by Nursing Homes and the Money Follows the Person Demonstration (3/11/11).

The Social Security Act specifies that CMP funds paid by nursing homes may only be used for the benefit and protection of nursing home residents.  A nursing home resident contemplating residence at another setting may wish to visit such a prospective residence (whether another nursing home or a community setting (such as his or her own apartment)).  CMP funds may be used to pay expenses directly incurred in such visits while the individual is a nursing home resident. 

CMP funds shall not be used for non-nursing home residents.  An individual discharged from a nursing home is no longer a nursing home resident and CMP funds are not available for that individual except for the relocation or transport of such a person to another setting. This memorandum references S&C-02-42 and S&C-09-44, memoranda that contain previous guidance on the use of CMP funds. The memo is attached.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will update the nursing home 5-star rating system on the Nursing Home Compare Web site on Thursday, March 17, 2011. CMS began populating facilities' mailboxes with their preview, Wednesday, March 9. To access your information, visit the Minimum Data Set (MDS) State Welcome page available on the state servers where you submit MDS data. Select the Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reports (CASPER) reporting link located at the bottom of the login page. Once in the CASPER reporting system, click on the 'Folders' button and access the Five Star Report in your 'st LTC facid' folder, where "st" is the 2-digit postal code of the state in which your facility is located and "facid" is your facility's state-assigned ID.

Report OEI-07-09-00110, titled Nursing Facilities' Employment of Individuals With Criminal Convictions, was released March 2 and can be accessed at: http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-07-09-00110.pdf. The public affairs office included the following summary:  

Our analysis of criminal history records maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed that 92 percent of nursing facilities employed at least one individual with at least one criminal conviction.  Overall, 5 percent of nursing facility employees had at least one criminal conviction. 

Federal regulation prohibits Medicare and Medicaid nursing facilities from employing individuals found guilty of abusing, neglecting, or mistreating residents by a court of law, or who have had a finding entered into the State nurse aide registry concerning abuse, neglect, or mistreatment of residents or misappropriation of their property.

Interpretive guidelines from CMS for this regulation state that "[nursing] facilities must be thorough in their investigations of the past histories of individuals they are considering hiring."  Despite this guidance, Federal law does not require that nursing facilities conduct FBI or statewide criminal background checks.  Although FBI maintained criminal history records provide a comprehensive source of criminal histories, the records do not contain information on whether the victim of a crime was a nursing facility resident and therefore cannot be used by themselves to determine whether a conviction disqualifies an individual from nursing facility employment.

Most often, criminal convictions were for crimes against property (e.g., burglary, shoplifting, and writing bad checks) and occurred prior to employment.  We also found that despite the lack of a Federal requirement for nursing facilities to conduct criminal background checks, most States required, and/or nursing facilities reported conducting, some type of background check. 

In light of the National Background Check Program that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act created, we recommended that CMS develop background check procedures.  In developing those procedures, CMS should (1) clearly define the employee classifications that are direct patient access employees and (2) work with participating States to develop a list of convictions that disqualify an individual from nursing facility employment under the Federal regulation and timeframes in which each conviction bars the individual from employment.

In its written comments on the report, CMS agreed with our recommendation.  CMS stated that in its solicitation to States for the National Background Check Program, the definition of "direct patient access employee" is broad and outcome based, which in nursing facilities should include all staff.  CMS stated that it will work with the States through the National Background Check Program to assist them in developing lists of convictions that disqualify individuals from employment, as well as defining whether any of those conviction types can be assumed to be mitigated because of the passage of time and which convictions should never be considered mitigated or rehabilitated.