The American Hospital Association filed an amicus brief Oct. 24 in support of a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District Court of Texas challenging the federal government's nursing staffing level mandate. 

CMS has released fiscal year 2025 guidance for its State Performance Standards System. The SPSS oversees the performance of the state survey agencies that ensure Medicare and Medicaid providers and facilities are compliant with federal requirements. 

Grand Blanc, Mich.-based McLaren Health Care will close its Bay City, Mich.-based long-term acute care hospital, McLaren Bay Special Care, on Dec. 22. The health system is moving forward with plans to build a multi-specialty outpatient campus on the site. 

The national ratio of Clostridium difficile infections reported by inpatient rehabilitation facilities across the U.S. between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023, was 0.408, according to data released by CMS on Sept. 25.

Private equity firm Cascade Capital Group has purchased 29 Iowa nursing homes for $85 million, making it the largest nursing home sale in the state's history, according to an Oct. 21 report from the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

In partnership with caregiving platform Archangels, The Joint Commission has launched a Care Badge initiative aimed at supporting unpaid caregivers.

Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare is renaming one of its long-term rehabilitation hospitals to better align with hospital names throughout the system.

The Gerontology Institute at Atlanta-based Georgia State University has partnered with older adult care provider A.G. Rhodes to address the nursing home workforce shortage through the establishment of the Scholars With A.G. Rhodes at GSU program.

Bob Dean Jr., a former Louisiana nursing home owner and operator, agreed to pay another $8.2 million to resolve federal allegations that he misappropriated and misused nursing home assets and income before and during the landfall of Hurricane Ida in August 2021.

On Oct. 9, Providence said it would sunset the augmentative and alternative communication specialty service at Providence Home Health Portland, resulting in the elimination of three speech-language pathologist positions. The three affected workers remain employed through Nov. 8, and the health system has paused the program end date pending collaboration with key stakeholders, a Providence spokesperson told Becker's. 

The Joint Commission has revised its home health agency accreditation survey process to align with similar CMS guideline updates published March 15.  

Waterbury, Conn.-based nursing facility Abbott Terrace Health Center is closing its doors and laying off staff after receiving notice from CMS that its participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs was being terminated. 

St. Louis-based Ascension will open a $30 million inpatient rehabilitation facility on its Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola (Fla.) medical campus, according to an Oct. 4 Pensacola News Journal report. 

A federal judge has thrown out a COVID-19-related wrongful death lawsuit against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, CBS affiliate WRGB reported Sept. 30.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has denied the sale of three nonprofit SSM Health nursing facilities to a New Jersey-based for-profit company, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Sept. 27. 

Chelsea (Mich.) Hospital, jointly owned and operated by Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health and Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine, has opened its new adult inpatient rehabilitation unit. 

Only 4% of California and Connecticut nursing homes are experiencing staffing shortages, compared to 80% in Alaska, according to findings published April 12 by Seniorly. 

CMS has issued a memo reminding nursing homes to facilitate their residents' right to vote. Guidance for nursing home administrators is included in the memo.

CMS analyzes rehabilitation hospital data to calculate the facility's Medicare spending per beneficiary score. 

More than one-third of nursing homes in the U.S. had no medical director presence in the first quarter of 2023, according to a study published Sept. 2 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.