Nursing Home News 2026Mar13

On March 11^th, LeadingAge Nebraska members had the opportunity to participate in the joint call with DHHS survey department. During the call the state Fire Marshall provided information regarding Fire Drills for Assisted Living, which is required under life safety code. This may also apply to Independent living (apartments). If your facility has more in depth assisted living residents, or if you have a nursing home, you are required to follow the Fire Drills for Healthcare Settings requirements instead of those as assisted living. We also heard from Larisa Mulroney on Assisted Living compliance inspections. For nursing homes, she also covered key points for F551- Rights Exercised by Representatives. This may also be good information for Assisted Living providers as well to avoid complaints and citations. Slides for this presentation are available here. A recording will be uploaded when it is available.

The CMS Center for Innovation announced the creation on a new, voluntary 10-year chronic care model called Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions (ACCESS) model in December 2025 and is now accepting applications to participate. The goal of the model is to help beneficiaries improve or better control one or more covered chronic conditions from four clinical tracks by employing technology-enabled care and chronic care management. Providers are paid what CMS refers to as, "outcome-aligned payments," which are a combination of a monthly payment per covered Medicare FFS beneficiary and an annual performance-based payment tied to clinical outcomes. These payments vary by clinical track — early cardio-Kidney-metabolic, cardio-kidney-metabolic, musculoskeletal and behavioral health. CMS is now accepting applications to participate from Medicare Part B providers and some suppliers. The first cohort of the model is scheduled to begin on July 5, 2026, and applications for this cohort must be submitted no later than April 1, 2026. Providers should be willing to participate for at least a 3-year term. Providers who miss this initial deadline need not worry, CMS also indicated applications will be accepted on a rolling basis for future cohorts. A second cohort will begin January 1, 2027, and subsequent cohorts will follow on a quarterly basis. For more information on the ACCESS model, check out the application and the FAQs.

The Washington Post reported on antipsychotic usage in nursing homes on March 6 with the headline “Should the practice of sedating the elderly in nursing homes be loosened?” The article highlighted multiple examples of potentially inappropriate prescribing, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’s) practices to identify and reduce antipsychotic usage in nursing homes, and various stakeholder responses. Many of the “industry” responses were actually the work of Project PAUSE, an ad hoc coalition in which LeadingAge participates. Project PAUSE has successfully advocated for report language to be included in Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations to direct the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to re-evaluate “black box warnings” and to direct the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) / CMS to revise antipsychotics quality measures to better distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate prescribing. Project PAUSE has also advocated directly to CMS for these changes. Read more about Project PAUSE and keep up to date with coalition activities here.

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