New Florida Law Changes Nursing Home Staffing Requirements
April 14, 2022
On Wednesday, April 6, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law HB 1239, which changes the way nursing homes in Florida are staffed. Under the new law, nursing homes will conduct facility assessments to determine necessary staffing levels, while the amount of mandated daily staffing hours by CNAs has been reduced, and “direct care” …
New York Lifts Suspension of Nursing Home Staffing/Minimum Spending Requirements
April 5, 2022
By Executive Order 4.7, issued on March 31, 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul re-instated provisions in the State Public Health Law (Sections 2895-b[3] and 2828[1]) that had been suspended due to the state-wide staffing shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 epidemic. The New York State Department of Health (DOH) later notified nursing home administrators that these …
Florida “No Patient Left Alone Act”: New Protocols for Patient Visitation
March 25, 2022
On June 2, 2022, Governor DeSantis signed the Freedom First Budget for State Fiscal Year 2022-2023. The Freedom First Budget (“Budget”) increased the minimum wage for employees of Medicaid providers to at least fifteen $15 dollars an hour. The Budget provided over $600 million in funding to the Agency for Health Care Administration (“AHCA”) …
New York Revises Nursing Home Infection Control Audit Requirements
March 23, 2022
On March 18, 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation making changes to Public Health Law 2803-aa (“PHL 2803-aa”) which NY State enacted in December 2021. PHL 2803-aa requires the Department of Health (“DOH”) to conduct annual infection control competency audits in nursing homes. The revised legislation: Pushes the start date for the DOH audits …
March 18, 2022
As many of you may already know, effective January 1, 2022, the New York State Health Insurance Plan (“NYSHIP” or the “Empire Plan”), acting through its administrator UnitedHealthcare, Inc. (“United”), dramatically and improperly reduced the rate at which the Empire Plan reimburses out-of-network physician services. United is wrongfully slashing those rates – generally from …