Literature Review

The (Surprisingly) Good News on Life Expectancy—It’s Still Going UpWall Street JournalDecember 15, 2023Over the past decade a number of alarming stories have chronicled the decline of U.S. life expectancy in the midst of rising overdose deaths, Covid-19, alcohol-related deaths and suicides. It turns out there are two ways to measure mortality and life expectancy, and the one you hear about the most paints a misleadingly pessimistic picture of the future. Last month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said life expectancy, which hit a 25-year low in 2021, climbed to 74.8 years for men and 80.2 for women in 2022, but those were still well below prepandemic levels.

Nursing home COVID deaths climb, but vaccinations move slowly upward tooMcKnights Long-Term Care News, 12/15/23By Kimberly MarselasDeaths of nursing home patients from COVID-19 climbed as vaccination rates hit new lows last month, according to an updated analysis by the AARP Public Policy Institute and the Scripps Gerontology Center. ... But vaccinations, at first widely embraced by residents and later mandated for healthcare workers, drove infection and deaths rates down dramatically starting in 2021.

‘Stop the bleeding’—A year after Safe Staffing law, nurses report high patient loadsTimes Union (Albany, NY)December 15, 2023One year after New York’s minimum staffing law for hospitals went into effect, nurses continue to report exceptionally high patient loads as hospital leaders struggle to keep up with turnover rates. ... Implementation of the new regulations—from the establishment of committees to negotiate those institution-specific staffing standards to the mandate for hospitals to report departments’ actual staffing ratios to the state Department of Health annually—has been rocky across the state’s 222 hospitals.

‘It’s Water Grinding Away The Stone’—Senior Care Providers Face Common Challenges In Continuum ExpansionsHome Health Care NewsDecember 15, 2023Home-based care providers are no longer content delivering a standard set of care services. Instead, leaders at in-home care organizations are working strategically to enhance services, creating a more integrated care delivery model—a continuum of care. At Intrepid USA, this means pairing the company’s home health and hospice services more closely together. ... Strategically, creating a continuum of services allows providers to maintain relationships with clients and patients longer—before their needs become acute, all the way through to end of life.Notable Mentions: Susan Ponder-Stansel, CEO of Alivia Care.

Iowa Democrats, advocates call for hearings on nursing home care and oversightIowa Capital DispatchDecember 14, 2023Iowa Senate Democrats on Thursday called on the GOP-controlled Senate Oversight Committee to launch a bipartisan investigation into Iowa’s nursing homes. Calling it “a matter of life and death,” Sen. Claire Celsi, D-West Des Moines, the ranking member on the committee, formally requested the investigation in a Dec. 14 letter to committee chair Sen. Amy Sinclair, R-Allerton.

Rural hospitals embrace ‘grow your own’ approach to staffingModern HealthcareDecember 15, 2023Always on the hunt for staff, some rural hospitals have been trying a less common recruitment setting: K-12 classrooms. The hospitals hope that by interesting local children in healthcare careers and investing in their education, the students will one day return to work as full-fledged providers. It’s a long game, but one that could help rural hospitals better compete for clinicians with urban health systems that have the budgets for higher salaries and bigger sign-on bonuses.

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. 

Falling short—99% of Mississippi nursing homes don’t meet new staffing regsMississippi TodayDecember 13, 2023... In Mississippi, all but two of the 200 skilled nursing facilities—those licensed to provide medical care from registered nurses—would need to increase staffing levels under federal regulations the Biden administration proposed in September, according to data analyzed by Mississippi Today, USA TODAY and Big Local News at Stanford University. That’s in line with the national trend: Over the first quarter of 2023—from January to March—less than 1% of skilled nursing facilities in the U.S. met the draft rule’s two core standards of provider care. 

Baptist Health Baptist Hospital Launches Inspirational Space for Patients and VisitorsSouth Florida Hospital NewsDecember 14, 2023Baptist Health Baptist Hospital launched the Inspiration Hall, powered by national leader in hospice and palliative care services, VITAS Healthcare. Located on the first floor near the hospital’s imaging center waiting room, the Inspiration Hall is an immersive experience where patients, visitors and hospital team members can submit, read or watch messages of comfort and support that will inspire others in their health journey. 

Home Health Spending Begins To Climb Again Post-PandemicHome Health Care NewsDecember 13, 2023After stalling in 2021, spending on home health care returned to a more normalized growth rate in 2022, according to a new analysis from the Office of the Actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Specifically, national health expenditures on home health care increased by 6% to $132.9 billion in 2022. 

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. 

Report spots care planning gaps for nursing home residentsMcKnight’s Long Term Care NewsDecember 12, 2023A new report looks at what’s working to help residents in long-term care communities prioritize care planning and advanced care planning, or ACP. The study was published on Dec. 6 in The Journal of Long-Term Care. Researchers set out to look at studies and surveys on care planning interventions for older adults in long-term care communities. The team wanted to understand what types of programs are being used to drive better care planning overall

Fitch downgrades Butler Health System’s bond debtPittsburgh Post-GazetteDecember 12, 2023Butler Health System’s financial challenges continued Monday with a ratings downgrade of its bond debt. Fitch Ratings issued a one-notch downgrade to ‘BBB-,’ outlook negative, because of accelerating losses and a “weaker than budgeted operating loss” of $12.97 million for the three months ending Sept. 30, up from a $1.6 million loss posted for the same quarter in 2022. BHS, a subsidiary of Independence Health System, is seeking a waiver from a debt service coverage requirement from bondholders, which otherwise could lead to a default.