Literature Review

Study uncovers racial, geographic disparities in LTSS accessMcKnight’s Home Care DailyDecember 19, 2023Disparities in access to long-term services and supports (LTSS) create greater financial and health-related challenges for people of color, according to new research by healthcare research firm ATI Advisory. Using data from a University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, the ATI study sampled 6,232 people aged 55 years old and living in home- or community-based settings. 

The Language of Hospice Can Help Us Get Better at Discussing DeathTIMEDecember 18, 2023Just because death is inevitable doesn’t make it easy or natural to talk about. In a new study, researchers wondered if hospice workers—experts in end-of-life care—had lessons to teach the rest of us when it came to speaking with patients and families about death. Daniel Menchik, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Arizona who studies the use of language in different fields of medicine, spent eight months sitting in on team meetings at a hospice care facility that were also open to patients’ families. ... In the study, Menchik noticed that hospice workers used three different types of verbs in meetings with family members: predictive, subjunctive, and imperative. Predictive verbs are used to assert things about the future and include words like “will” and “going to.” Imperative verbs carry a similar firmness, but include a call to action; the most common one Menchik encounters in medical settings is “should.” Subjunctive verbs convey some sort of personal stance when talking about the future. “Think,” “feel,” “want,” and many other expressive phrases fall in this category. When a family starts hospice care, “their capabilities to engage in intense conversations [about death] are usually pretty limited,” Menchik says. But he believes that hospice workers help bridge that gap by minimizing their use of imperative verbs. In meetings he observed, imperative verbs made up just 17% of the verb phrases used by hospice professionals. That’s fairly uncommon in medicine. Editor's Note: Use this article to examine the language used in your team meetings; to strengthen your orientation of employees from non-hospice settings; to engage your admissions nurses in a lively dialogue about its applicability to their experiences with patients and families.

Staffing issues continue to drive reduced admissions in SNFsMcKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 18, 2023Nursing home providers continue to struggle with staffing challenges as they aim to reboot admissions in the post-pandemic era, according to the newly released results of a recent Ziegler CFO Hotline survey. “The demand for our SNF services is rising at a rate significantly higher than our labor force allows,” said one respondent. ... Forty-six percent of the respondents to the November survey indicated that staffing issues have forced a reduction in SNF admissions. 

Senior homes left dangerously understaffed amid assisted-living boomWashington PostDecember 17, 2023Louisville, CO—Lavender Farms, an upscale assisted-living facility in the Boulder suburbs, promised “24/7 on-site care” in its marketing materials. But managers at its operating company, Balfour Senior Living, worried deeply about their ability to care for the elderly residents who roamed the farmhouse-chic corridors at odd hours and sometimes wandered outside unnoticed, documents and interviews show. ... Failures at Balfour facilities are symptoms of deeper problems in the $34 billion market for assisted living and memory care, a growing industry that now provides care and housing for more than a million Americans, according to industry estimates.

Big Medicare Changes Coming in 2024AARP, 12/14/23By Dena BunisThe new year rings in more Rx drug savings, higher Part B premiums and new Advantage rules.

Lawmakers bring PACE expansion bill back into playMcKnight’s Home Care DailyDecember 15, 2023Two members of Congress reintroduced a bill that would strengthen and expand the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and John Moolenaar (R-MI) introduced the PACE Expanded Act on Dec. 5. The sweeping legislation, if passed, would promote the expansion of existing PACE programs, make it easier to establish new programs, make PACE more affordable for Medicare beneficiaries and create a pilot program for testing the PACE model within new populations. 

Greener nurses enter field as workforce demand continues to spikeMcKnight’s Home Care DailyDecember 15, 2023Job openings in healthcare and social services have risen sharply in the last several years, and healthcare providers are taking on less-experienced registered nurses to handle the pressure. At the beginning of 2018, the average nurse’s tenure was more than six years of experience, according to a recent workforce report by the ADP Research Institute. In the five years since, however, high turnover rates and a corresponding abundance of job opportunities deflated a nurse’s average tenure to about five years of experience. 

22 states to increase minimum wage on Jan. 1McKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 13, 2023Almost half of the states, along with 40 local jurisdictions, are set to ring in 2024 with increases to minimum wage, according to Polsinelli law firm. The 22 states with minimum wage increases coming in the new year: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Washington. 

Occupancy on way to 10th consecutive quarter of growthMcKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 14, 2023Senior living occupancy is on its way to 10 consecutive quarters of positive growth, according to NIC MAP Vision’s November intra-quarterly snapshot report. The positive growth trend in senior living—independent living and assisted living combined—marks the longest period of uninterrupted gains since the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care and NIC MAP Vision began reporting data in 2005, Omar Zahraoui, principal at NIC, wrote in a blog. 

Nursing Home and CCRC Spending Grew 5.6% to $191.3B in 2022—After Dropping 7.8% in 2021Skilled Nursing NewsDecember 13, 2023Nursing homes and continuing care retirement communities made up $191.3 billion of national health expenditures in 2022, an increase from $181.1 billion in 2021, reaching levels close to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Pre-pandemic, such expenditures sat between $162 billion and $174.1 billion between 2016 and 2019, according to a survey published by Health Affairs. 

Assaults on healthcare workers now carry enhanced criminal finesMcKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 12, 2023Michigan is the latest state to codify protections for healthcare workers assaulted on the job, which one senior living association said will positively impact the state’s workforce shortage problem. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) recently signed into law two bills that create enhanced criminal fines for assaults, aggravated assaults and assaults with a deadly weapon against health professionals or volunteers while on the job. ... In signing the bills, Whitmer said healthcare workers face “rising rates of bullying, viciousness and violence.” 

VyncaCare CEO Schulte—Redesign Serious Illness Care for Patients’ Changing NeedsHospice NewsDecember 12, 2023The needs of today’s seriously ill patients necessitates the development of new, longitudinal care models that integrate the patient-centered principles of hospice and palliative care, Dr. Darren Schulte, CEO of VyncaCare, told Hospice News. Vynca launched as an advance care planning technology platform and expanded into the palliative care provider space through its 2021 acquisition of California-based Resolution Care.