Friday Review—1/3/20

 

Happy Friday and Happy New Year!  For the record, I take full blame for the Patriots loss on Sunday.  It was the first game I have attended in person in more than 10 years, and boy did they lay an egg.

 

This just in…—With all of the issues our members will be facing this year in the legislature and beyond, RIHCA has enlisted the services of Bramley Communications to help us with our public relations and image.  In the coming days, weeks and months we will implement a plan to put forth positive stories about the work we do every day.  We may also be contacting some of our members for positive stories involving residents, staff or both.  Stay tuned.

 

Leading with some good news--Did you see this article in McKnight’s from a week or so ago?  It says CMS may be reducing some requirements on nursing homes in 2020.  You can read more here: https://www.mcknights.com/news/cms-may-move-to-reduce-burdensome-requirements-for-nursing-homes-next-year/

 

And now the not so good—Medicaid payments to nursing homes in New York were cut 1% as of January 1st.  https://skillednursingnews.com/2020/01/ny-slashes-medicaid-payments-to-nursing-homes-other-providers-by-124m-with-500m-annual-cuts-coming/

 

Massachusetts tries something different—Increasing funding for nursing homes may actually be a ballot question in Massachusetts this year.   It’s not definite yet, and still needs legislative approval or more signatures of support to be put before the voters. When you click on the link, scroll down to Item #2 for the details. https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2019/12/27/massachusetts-ballot-questions-2020

 

Obesity and dementia—A recent study of more than one million women in the United Kingdom shows a relationship between obesity in middle age, and a greater risk for dementia. https://consumer.healthday.com/senior-citizen-information-31/age-health-news-7/obesity-in-middle-age-could-raise-odds-for-alzheimer-s-later-753206.html

 

Hearing and dementia—This study is a little more positive.  Correcting your hearing loss can help preserve brain function.  So says this article in the New York Times.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/well/live/brain-health-hearing-dementia-alzheimers.html

 

New year comes with predictions—Leading up to the new year, Skilled Nursing News interviewed a wide variety of leaders in the long-term care industry.  The first of two articles was published this week.  The quote in the headline of this piece is not very encouraging, as you will see when you click this link.

https://skillednursingnews.com/2020/01/executive-outlook-skilled-nursing-providers-must-adapt-or-die-in-2020/

 

Telling us what we already know—This commentary in Forbes magazine, by way of Provider Daily says that the decade of the ‘20’s is just the beginning of the wave of increased need for senior and long-term care services.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/howardgleckman/2020/01/02/the-2020s-will-be-a-tipping-point-for-elder-care-in-the-us/#5781c04857d2

 

 

Well, we all made it through the first few days of the new year.  I hope your holidays were fun and relatively stress free.  Our boys have a tough one in Foxboro tomorrow.  After witnessing Sunday’s game in person, I have no predictions on tomorrow’s outcome.  I just hope this is not the last time I close by saying:  Go Pats!


Have a great weekend!