Welcome to the HealthPRO Heritage Blog

PDPM: Outcomes, Outcomes, Outcomes

Posted on: May 2, 2019

Success under PDPM – and beyond!  in large part, boils down to this: A SNF’s ability to build positive, sustainable outcomes. As such, HealthPRO Heritage advises providers to focus on the strategies, processes, and initiatives that will support consistent delivery on exceptional clinical and performance outcomes.  

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Tags: Rules of Participation, PDPM, CMS Update 2019

SNF Proposed Payment Updates

Posted on: April 25, 2019

Today, CMS published the FY 2020 Skilled Nursing Facility Proposed Payment System (SNF PPS) in the federal register. It contains the SNF PPS payment update is 2.5% for FY 2020, which is an increase in payments of $887 million, compared to FY 2019.  This estimated increase is attributable to a 3.0 percent market basket increase factor with a 0.5 percentage point reduction for multi-factor productivity adjustment.

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Tags: Patient-Driven Payment Model, PDPM, CMS Update 2019

Update from CMS Regarding Group/Concurrent Under PDPM • April 19, 2019

Posted on: April 20, 2019

Late Friday afternoon, April 19, CMS released the FY 2020 SNF PPS Proposed Rule, specifying a few changes for the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM). HealthPRO Heritage is looking forward to reporting out on all the modifications, but can’t wait to share the following good news…

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Tags: Payment Reform, Patient-Driven Payment Model, PDPM, CMS Update 2019

QRP and QMs are Changing with the Times. Are You?

Posted on: April 18, 2019

As of April, CMS has implemented important modifications for the Quality Reporting Program (QRP) and Quality Measures (QMs) that may have significant fiscal, clinical, and compliance implications as well. Not only will these changes enable CMS to better monitor SNF outcomes, the modifications raise the bar on performance measures and will challenge SNFs to drive care differently. 

What should SNFs know?  HealthPRO Heritage offers guidance. 

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Tags: Patient-Driven Payment Model, PDPM, CMS Update 2019

Group Therapy Under PDPM: Strength in Numbers

Posted on: April 11, 2019

Think about a task you routinely complete:  yardwork, cooking a meal, or a project at work.  Now imagine asking a friend or co-worker to pick up a rake or join you in the kitchen.  Your results:  being able to complete the same tasks with improved efficiency and even better outcomes.    

Apply this thought-process to providing world-class rehab services for the patients in your care.  Research supports:  There’s strength in numbers!

The post-acute world is looking forward to new rules. Learn more about best practices and potential pitfalls RE: Group Therapy Under PDPM. 

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Tags: Patient-Driven Payment Model, PDPM

Give a Little to Get a Lot: Nursing, PDPM, and Documentation ReDesign

Posted on: April 1, 2019

CEOs, NHAs, and DONs take note!  With the new PDPM paradigm, you’ll be asking your nurses to:

  • Continue to drive quality measures, star ratings, survey results, satisfaction scores, etc.
  • Care for higher acuity patients; and
  • Adopt very different documentation practices.

All of these requisites are vitally important to your facility’s success under PDPM. But perhaps the most challenging change for Nursing teams (who really just want to be patient caretakers, right?) will be #3 on this list. 

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Tags: CMS, CMS policy, Payment Reform, Patient-Driven Payment Model, PDPM, CMS Update 2019

Legal-Ease: A Collaborative Approach to Therapy Contracts Under PDPM

Posted on: March 21, 2019

Check back here in the upcoming weeks for this blog post.  In the interim, please contact us for specific inquiries related to PDPM contracting at info@healthpro-heritage.com.

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Tags: PDPM, Therapy Contracts

If PDPM is a Relay Race...MDs Carry the Baton First

Posted on: March 14, 2019

It seems everyone’s roles are changing with the onset of PDPM.  Even referring clinicians (MDs, NPs and PAs) who send their patients  to a skilled nursing facility will need to commit to a new more comprehensive, faster-paced process. 

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Tags: Patient-Driven Payment Model, PDPM

Why Choose HealthPRO Heritage

Posted on: March 1, 2019

McKnight's Long-Term Care News recently featured an article – "PDPM Has Possibilities" – with input  from HealthPRO Heritage's Hilary Forman, Chief Clinical Strategies Officer and Ian Tucker, VP of Clinical Informatics and Product Management: 

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Tags: PDPM

The NTA Tightrope of Risk and Reward

Posted on: February 21, 2019

Reminder: HealthPRO Heritage customers can participate in the second webinar of our PDPM University series: 
DEEP DIVE INTO NTA AND NURSING COMPONENTS • 1pm EST 
Contact education@healthpro-heritage.com for more information.



Under PDPM, CMS has broken the singular nursing component of RUG-IV into two separate components – Nursing and Non-Therapy Ancillary (NTA) – to adeptly account for the wide-ranging variations within the skilled population. This change represents a very different and much-needed approach to efficiently managing patients with higher complexity and/or multiple conditions. It also opens many doors of opportunity for providers and patients alike. For example, providers will now be able to identify specific groups of conditions – and subsequently build specialized care programs recognized by referring hospitals as best practice. 

So this all makes sense, and there’s nothing to worry about.  Right?  Not so fast! 

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Tags: PDPM