Reopening and Refocusing on CMS Survey

It’s Summer 2021. COVID is on the wane and senior living communities across the country are slowly approaching a new ‘normal’…. finally! It’s no secret that this past year has been tough for everyone, but especially for those working in the senior living sector. In addition to personal struggles through covid, they have had to also keep an entire population of people safe from the disease, engaged, happy, and fulfilled throughout a slew of changes to their day-to-day routines. During this time, keeping residents safe and healthy was the top priority, and some of the important administrative check-ins may not have taken center stage on the to-do list.

No one knows exactly what the new “normal” will entail but one thing is certain, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has resumed the annual survey process. During COVID, the physical health and well-being of the residents and staff was job #1, as it should have been. However, surveyors will now use their “white gloves” to examine other areas of your operation to find deficiencies, including financial administration.

One way the U.S. Government responded to the pandemic was to issue a series of stimulus checks to many Americans, including many residents of nursing homes. This caused the balance of the patient fund accounts to rise significantly in many communities. Checking the residents’ assets against the bond amount in place is a piece of the puzzle the CMS will be looking at. During a tumultuous year of keeping a heightened focus on safety and health this may have been something that was overlooked, but now is the time to check in to avoid a violation. Please compare your current fund balance to your patient fund bond limit. Don’t get cited for failing to keep your bond limits up where they need to be.

The AssuredPartners service team can offer bond limit verification and assist with increasing bond coverage limits. Now is the perfect time to review all the items on the CMS survey. In addition to confirming bond limits, AssuredPartners offers many other value-added services to our clients that could help increase the CMS survey results.

• Clinical Counseling: Offering clinical training to nurses on staff at the community. We have resources with years of experience specific to senior living communities that cover wound consulting to dementia-specific training.
• On-Site Assessments: Our on-site risk management assessments engage an enterprise risk management approach. During this process, we identify areas of concern and prioritize them through recommendations that proactively reduce ongoing risks and improve policies regarding mitigation and monitoring activities.
• Claims Advocacy: We are in constant communication with the client, adjusters, and defense counsel in strategic discussions on how best to respond to a given situation including settlement discussions. Our team consists of those with many years of legal experience should a lawsuit occur and know how to engage with adjusters and defense counsel to ensure that the client is always aware of the status.

As everyone begins to emerge from their cocoons, we have all had different focuses over the past year and the senior living community is re-focusing on health and safety in a broader picture. Keeping your bond limits up to date with correct amounts is one of the many tasks to be reminded of. As your partner in this industry, we are here to help keep your residents, patients, and employees safe and protected. Our team is experienced in senior living risks and solutions and can provide the products and services that will keep you in shape in the most cost-effective manner.

Call the AssuredPartners senior living service team today to hear more about our value-added services that will help mitigate risks, keep costs down, and feel confident when the CMS surveyor arrives.