 |
Links to AAHSA.org |
Sept. 4, 2007
This Week's Top News:
Congress is Back in Washington: Help Us Fight for the Payments and Policies You Deserve
Today, your legislators are back on Capitol Hill and they are set to make decisions that will affect the care and services you can provide to their elderly constituents. That's why we need your help with the following:
Medicare payment freeze for nursing homes and home health agencies. This is contained in the Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act as passed by the House. The freeze would stop the 3.3 percent and 3 percent market basket increases that CMS has announced for nursing homes and home health services providers respectively. You know the damage this freeze would do in your work. Now's the time to tell your legislators about it.
Nursing Home Survey Revisit Fees. The Senate soon will vote on a bill that would continue these fees. Send a letter to your Senators to remove this provision from the bill.
Housing Appropriations. The fiscal 2008 spending bill passed by the House provides the same $735 million that the Section 202 program has received for the last several years. Increasing numbers of seniors need affordable housing; let's ask the Senate to raise funding up to $750 million.
Housing Reform. We need more sponsors for our signature Section 202 reform legislation, H.R. 2930. Several AAHSA members will testify at a House Financial Services Committee hearing this week on the need for these program changes. Support your colleagues by asking your House member to sign onto this bill.
August may be over, but we must continue to flood our legislators' offices with calls, faxes and e-mails about these issues before it is too late. Contact on nursing home issues: Marsha Greenfield, (202) 508-9488; housing issues: Nancy Libson, (202) 508-9447 or Alayna Waldrum, (202) 508-9476. More information and sample letters on all of these initiatives are on Contact Congress.
Read our comments on user fees.
advertisement
Win a Chance for a Free Trip to our 2008 Annual Meeting: Share Your Story by Sept. 10
There are just six days left to enter AAHSA's second annual storytelling contest. This year, we want to hear stories about your residents' and clients' challenges with the current long-term care financing system, resident and client involvement in Quality First, social accountability and community benefit programs and your efforts to increase diversity in our field. Please submit your story online or print out a form to use. We also developed a form that you can share with your residents. Please fax all printed entries to us at (202) 783-2255. All entries from your organization will be entered in a raffle to win either an all-expenses paid trip to AAHSA's 2008 Annual Meeting & Exposition in Philadelphia or free registration to this event for your entire board of directors. Submissions will be accepted until Sept. 10. Contact: Lauren Shaham, (202) 508-1219.
Print a story form for you and your residents.
Submit your story online.
Three Days Left to Register for Our HUD Handbook Audio Conference
Want to learn strategies for integrating HUD's recent changes to their management handbook into your daily operations? Participate in our audio conference, New HUD Handbook Revisions: What Assisted Housing Providers Need to Know on Sept. 12, from 2 to 4 p.m., Eastern Time, and gain a better understanding of how the handbook revisions will alter front-office operations, staff training and oversight and tenant communication. Register by Sept. 7 to save you and your staff a spot. Contact: meeting@aahsa.org, (888) 508-9441.
Read more information and register online.
Register by mail or fax.
Find Out the Latest Senior Housing News
In our Housing Report, read about our continuing efforts to resolve Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) delays, including the upcoming Congressional hearing, find a progress update on our Section 202 housing reform bill and find out how you can get the new U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD) Occupancy Handbook. Contact: Alayna Waldrum, (202) 508-9476.
Read the report.
New CAST Program Brings Laboratories to Life in Aging Services
How can technology improve your work for older adults? Find out as a participant in the Center for Aging Services Technologies' (CAST ) new pilot projects and centers of excellence program. Through this project, CAST's experts will help providers and technology companies alike maximize the value of participating in pilot projects. Want to learn more? Please complete this questionnaire so we can give you more information about how this program can meet your organization's unique needs. Contact: Majd Alwan, (202) 508-9463. Learn more about the program.
Hardcopy of HUD Occupancy Handbook Now Available
In response to your requests, the AAHSA Bookstore is offering the entire new Occupancy Handbook 4350.3 Rev-1; Change 2 at a nominal cost to defray printing charges. Although the Handbook is available as a free download online from HUDclips, the sheer volume of chapters can make the process time- and cost-prohibitive. That's why we did the work for you. To order your copy, visit the AAHSA Bookstore and request item number AH002.
Update on Nursing Home Fire Safety and Overhangs/Canopies
On July 23, CMS issued a memorandum clarifying that the Fire Safety Evaluation System (FSES) can be used to evaluate the level of safety provided in a sprinklered nursing home when there are no sprinklers under overhangs and canopies that require sprinklers. The Nursing Home Life Safety Code Section on AAHSA's Web site has an update, prepared by our life safety consultant and reviewed by CMS, on the use of the FSES and the distinction between FSES and waivers. Contact: Evvie Munley, (202) 508-9478.
Read the update.
Expedite Contract Turnaround for Timely HAP Payments
We are communicating with HUD officials on a weekly basis about the problems many of you are experiencing with Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) delays. According to our latest discussion, the contracts were minimally revised and can be found here. It is absolutely critical that housing owners expedite turnaround of new contracts that must be signed and returned to the performance based contract administrator. There are still a number of steps that must be taken to get the contract fully executed and the release of funds authorized at the financial management center. If all steps are not completed by Sept. 30 , it will be at least two more weeks beyond that date before funds can flow to the property. Contact: Colleen Bloom, (202) 508-9483.
Read about the further-revised documents and clarified communications processes.
New Technical Assistance "Packages" are Available for Nursing Home Quality
The Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes campaign recently released a comprehensive set of intervention guides on its Web site. These guides address topics including reducing pressure ulcers, improving pain management, assessing resident satisfaction and increasing staff retention. Each guide also includes a flow diagram, process framework, Process Review Tool; and Resources. Contact: Bruce Rosenthal, (202) 508-9499.
See the new quality improvement materials.
See information about the Advancing Excellence campaign.
Celebrate Quality First’s 5th Anniversary with the People You Serve
When you ask the residents of Deer Meadows Retirement Community in Philadelphia, Pa., if Quality First has made a difference where they live, they answer with one word: absolutely. Deer Meadows encourages residents to play an active role on its Quality First journey as members of its Quality First Committee. As we celebrate the 5th anniversary of Quality First, take some inspiration from Deer Meadows and engage your residents and clients in your work to earn the public’s trust.
Contact: Bruce Rosenthal, (202) 508-9499.
See the Consumers’ Guide to Quality Aging Services.
View some helpful tips for sharing the Guide with your residents.
Adult Day Week Guide Can Help Your Organization Tell the Story of Caring
During this year's National Adult Day Services Week, Sept. 16-22, we urge adult day providers to tell their story of caring by inviting governors to visit, hosting events and fund raisers and encouraging community members to learn more about adult day's value in their communities. Our guide has the tools you need to do the same. The celebration starts soon, so start planning today! Contact: Kirsten Jacobs, (800) 558-5301.
Start planning your Adult Day Services Week celebration.
Help Us Make AAHSA.org Better for You
We want to make our Web site, www.aahsa.org, the place where you can find the resources you need in your work for older adults. That's why we are conducting a survey to see how members like you use the Web and more important, find out how we can make AAHSA.org the best site for your organization. Contact: Susan Cato, (202) 508-9474.
Take the survey.
Celebrate Inaugural World Alzheimer's Day: Sept. 21
Mark your calendars. Sept. 21 is the Alzheimer's Association's first-ever World Alzheimer's Day. This event is designed to bring together consumers, providers, policy makers and other advocates to show their support for funding for Alzheimer's research and awareness program. The association's goal is to raise $1 million for the event, but either way, The Harrah Foundation will match every dollar raised for this important cause. Contact: (800) 272-3900.
Start planning your celebration.
StandUp Gardens, AAHSA's newest Group Purchasing Partner, can help you spruce up your community from the inside out. This company's products and services incorporate features that can help you overcome the traditional boundaries that you may face with gardening, including a lack of time, space, tools and accessibility. In addition to regular savings, AAHSA members will receive an especially deep discount on the Babylon and Huntington Gardens. Sign up now to start digging into this partner's benefits for your organization. Contact: Peter Whiting, (800) 867-8263.
Learn about the program's highlights.
Dig into Stand Up Gardens.
Nursing Home Administrator - Lincoln, Neb.
Director of Aging Services - Clinton, Iowa
CEO/President/Executive Director
Executive Director - Randolph, Mass.
Executive Director - Hollidaysburg, Pa.
Executive Director - Newton, N.C.
Marketing/Sales/Business Office
Marketing Counselor - Cincinnati, Ohio
Marketing and Community Relations Director - Hanover, N.H.
Nursing/Healthcare
Director of Nursing - Jacksonville, Fla.
Other
Associate Director, AAHSA Center for Aging Services Technologies - Sacramento, Calif.
Associate Executive Director - Rydal, Pa.
Review the jobs online
Newsletter Tools
View Past Issues
Subscribe
Advertise
Contact Us
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
2519 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008
Tel (866) 783-2242, Fax (202) 783-2255
This Week's Top News:
Congress is Back in Washington: Help Us Fight for the Payments and Policies You Deserve
Today, your legislators are back on Capitol Hill and they are set to make decisions that will affect the care and services you can provide to their elderly constituents. That's why we need your help with the following:
Medicare payment freeze for nursing homes and home health agencies. This is contained in the Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act as passed by the House. The freeze would stop the 3.3 percent and 3 percent market basket increases that CMS has announced for nursing homes and home health services providers respectively. You know the damage this freeze would do in your work. Now's the time to tell your legislators about it.
Nursing Home Survey Revisit Fees. The Senate soon will vote on a bill that would continue these fees. Send a letter to your Senators to remove this provision from the bill.
Housing Appropriations. The fiscal 2008 spending bill passed by the House provides the same $735 million that the Section 202 program has received for the last several years. Increasing numbers of seniors need affordable housing; let's ask the Senate to raise funding up to $750 million.
Housing Reform. We need more sponsors for our signature Section 202 reform legislation, H.R. 2930. Several AAHSA members will testify at a House Financial Services Committee hearing this week on the need for these program changes. Support your colleagues by asking your House member to sign onto this bill.
August may be over, but we must continue to flood our legislators' offices with calls, faxes and e-mails about these issues before it is too late. Contact on nursing home issues: Marsha Greenfield, (202) 508-9488; housing issues: Nancy Libson, (202) 508-9447 or Alayna Waldrum, (202) 508-9476. More information and sample letters on all of these initiatives are on Contact Congress.
Read our comments on user fees.
advertisement
 |
Win a Chance for a Free Trip to our 2008 Annual Meeting: Share Your Story by Sept. 10
There are just six days left to enter AAHSA's second annual storytelling contest. This year, we want to hear stories about your residents' and clients' challenges with the current long-term care financing system, resident and client involvement in Quality First, social accountability and community benefit programs and your efforts to increase diversity in our field. Please submit your story online or print out a form to use. We also developed a form that you can share with your residents. Please fax all printed entries to us at (202) 783-2255. All entries from your organization will be entered in a raffle to win either an all-expenses paid trip to AAHSA's 2008 Annual Meeting & Exposition in Philadelphia or free registration to this event for your entire board of directors. Submissions will be accepted until Sept. 10. Contact: Lauren Shaham, (202) 508-1219.
Print a story form for you and your residents.
Submit your story online.
Three Days Left to Register for Our HUD Handbook Audio Conference
Want to learn strategies for integrating HUD's recent changes to their management handbook into your daily operations? Participate in our audio conference, New HUD Handbook Revisions: What Assisted Housing Providers Need to Know on Sept. 12, from 2 to 4 p.m., Eastern Time, and gain a better understanding of how the handbook revisions will alter front-office operations, staff training and oversight and tenant communication. Register by Sept. 7 to save you and your staff a spot. Contact: meeting@aahsa.org, (888) 508-9441.
Read more information and register online.
Register by mail or fax.
Find Out the Latest Senior Housing News
In our Housing Report, read about our continuing efforts to resolve Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) delays, including the upcoming Congressional hearing, find a progress update on our Section 202 housing reform bill and find out how you can get the new U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD) Occupancy Handbook. Contact: Alayna Waldrum, (202) 508-9476.
Read the report.
New CAST Program Brings Laboratories to Life in Aging ServicesHow can technology improve your work for older adults? Find out as a participant in the Center for Aging Services Technologies' (CAST ) new pilot projects and centers of excellence program. Through this project, CAST's experts will help providers and technology companies alike maximize the value of participating in pilot projects. Want to learn more? Please complete this questionnaire so we can give you more information about how this program can meet your organization's unique needs. Contact: Majd Alwan, (202) 508-9463. Learn more about the program.
Hardcopy of HUD Occupancy Handbook Now Available
In response to your requests, the AAHSA Bookstore is offering the entire new Occupancy Handbook 4350.3 Rev-1; Change 2 at a nominal cost to defray printing charges. Although the Handbook is available as a free download online from HUDclips, the sheer volume of chapters can make the process time- and cost-prohibitive. That's why we did the work for you. To order your copy, visit the AAHSA Bookstore and request item number AH002.
Update on Nursing Home Fire Safety and Overhangs/Canopies
On July 23, CMS issued a memorandum clarifying that the Fire Safety Evaluation System (FSES) can be used to evaluate the level of safety provided in a sprinklered nursing home when there are no sprinklers under overhangs and canopies that require sprinklers. The Nursing Home Life Safety Code Section on AAHSA's Web site has an update, prepared by our life safety consultant and reviewed by CMS, on the use of the FSES and the distinction between FSES and waivers. Contact: Evvie Munley, (202) 508-9478.
Read the update.
Expedite Contract Turnaround for Timely HAP Payments
We are communicating with HUD officials on a weekly basis about the problems many of you are experiencing with Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) delays. According to our latest discussion, the contracts were minimally revised and can be found here. It is absolutely critical that housing owners expedite turnaround of new contracts that must be signed and returned to the performance based contract administrator. There are still a number of steps that must be taken to get the contract fully executed and the release of funds authorized at the financial management center. If all steps are not completed by Sept. 30 , it will be at least two more weeks beyond that date before funds can flow to the property. Contact: Colleen Bloom, (202) 508-9483.
Read about the further-revised documents and clarified communications processes.
New Technical Assistance "Packages" are Available for Nursing Home QualityThe Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes campaign recently released a comprehensive set of intervention guides on its Web site. These guides address topics including reducing pressure ulcers, improving pain management, assessing resident satisfaction and increasing staff retention. Each guide also includes a flow diagram, process framework, Process Review Tool; and Resources. Contact: Bruce Rosenthal, (202) 508-9499.
See the new quality improvement materials.
See information about the Advancing Excellence campaign.
 3,200 Covenant signers! Have you signed yet? |
When you ask the residents of Deer Meadows Retirement Community in Philadelphia, Pa., if Quality First has made a difference where they live, they answer with one word: absolutely. Deer Meadows encourages residents to play an active role on its Quality First journey as members of its Quality First Committee. As we celebrate the 5th anniversary of Quality First, take some inspiration from Deer Meadows and engage your residents and clients in your work to earn the public’s trust.
Contact: Bruce Rosenthal, (202) 508-9499.
See the Consumers’ Guide to Quality Aging Services.
View some helpful tips for sharing the Guide with your residents.
Adult Day Week Guide Can Help Your Organization Tell the Story of Caring
During this year's National Adult Day Services Week, Sept. 16-22, we urge adult day providers to tell their story of caring by inviting governors to visit, hosting events and fund raisers and encouraging community members to learn more about adult day's value in their communities. Our guide has the tools you need to do the same. The celebration starts soon, so start planning today! Contact: Kirsten Jacobs, (800) 558-5301.
Start planning your Adult Day Services Week celebration.
Help Us Make AAHSA.org Better for You
We want to make our Web site, www.aahsa.org, the place where you can find the resources you need in your work for older adults. That's why we are conducting a survey to see how members like you use the Web and more important, find out how we can make AAHSA.org the best site for your organization. Contact: Susan Cato, (202) 508-9474.
Take the survey.
Celebrate Inaugural World Alzheimer's Day: Sept. 21
Mark your calendars. Sept. 21 is the Alzheimer's Association's first-ever World Alzheimer's Day. This event is designed to bring together consumers, providers, policy makers and other advocates to show their support for funding for Alzheimer's research and awareness program. The association's goal is to raise $1 million for the event, but either way, The Harrah Foundation will match every dollar raised for this important cause. Contact: (800) 272-3900.
Start planning your celebration.
AAHSA's Money-Saving Programs: Beyond Savings
Grow Your Garden Year-roundStandUp Gardens, AAHSA's newest Group Purchasing Partner, can help you spruce up your community from the inside out. This company's products and services incorporate features that can help you overcome the traditional boundaries that you may face with gardening, including a lack of time, space, tools and accessibility. In addition to regular savings, AAHSA members will receive an especially deep discount on the Babylon and Huntington Gardens. Sign up now to start digging into this partner's benefits for your organization. Contact: Peter Whiting, (800) 867-8263.
Learn about the program's highlights.
Dig into Stand Up Gardens.
Opportunities Available on AAHSA's Job Mart
Several career opportunities in aging services are now available and listed on Job Mart. Take a look. Pass along the news. If you have a job to post, consider using AAHSA Job Mart. Contact: Phillip Blackmon, (202) 508-9404.
Use the downloadable form to post a job.
Jobs posted in the past week (Aug. 24 – Aug. 30):
AdministratorNursing Home Administrator - Lincoln, Neb.
Director of Aging Services - Clinton, Iowa
CEO/President/Executive Director
Executive Director - Randolph, Mass.
Executive Director - Hollidaysburg, Pa.
Executive Director - Newton, N.C.
Marketing/Sales/Business Office
Marketing Counselor - Cincinnati, Ohio
Marketing and Community Relations Director - Hanover, N.H.
Nursing/Healthcare
Director of Nursing - Jacksonville, Fla.
Other
Associate Director, AAHSA Center for Aging Services Technologies - Sacramento, Calif.
Associate Executive Director - Rydal, Pa.
Review the jobs online
Newsletter Tools
View Past Issues
Subscribe
Advertise
Contact Us
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
2519 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20008
Tel (866) 783-2242, Fax (202) 783-2255