Senior living communities should be prioritized for rapid response antigen testing and provided with implementation recommendations, industry representatives said Tuesday in a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
The Department of Health and Human Services on Monday extended until Sept. 21 the deadline for assisted living providers to begin their applications for funding under the Provider Relief Fund phase 2 general distribution allocation.
Appointments, promotions and honors at Argentum, Arrow Senior Living, Atlas Senior Living, Brookdale Senior Living, Claiborne Senior Living, the International Council on Active Aging, Lifespace Communities, Lutheran Life Communities, Oakmont Senior Living, Sonata Senior Living, The Springs Living, Vista Prairie Communities.
The first available vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 should go to frontline healthcare workers — including those who work in assisted living communities — and first responders, according to draft recommendations from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. But application of the recommendations to older adults in long-term care settings — specifically, senior housing — is unclear, according to industry representatives.
Private-pay assisted living communities now may apply for funding under the Provider Relief Fund phase 2 general distribution allocation, the Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday through the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Argentum’s 2020 Largest Providers Report list increased by 10 this year to include data on 150 senior living providers.
Nursing homes aren’t the only long-term care settings that need testing capabilities amid the coronavirus pandemic, Argentum President and CEO James Balda said a day after HHS announced it would be sending tests that can rapidly diagnose COVID-19 to nursing homes. The HHS announcement came on the same day that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced an impending order requiring all assisted living communities in the state to conduct baseline saliva testing for COVID-19 in residents and staff members.
With a background including leadership roles at the National Restaurant Association and America’s Health Insurance Plans, James Balda may not have been the most obvious choice to lead an association representing operators of independent living, assisted living, memory care and continuing care retirement communities. But when he became president and CEO of Argentum, then known as the Assisted Living Federation of America, in early 2015, he brought with him “fresh eyes.”
For months now, industry associations have been making the case for senior living operators to be included in a federal COVID relief package. Increasingly, their messages are being heard, and other voices are joining their pleas.
Proposed legislation that would protect healthcare providers from COVID-19-related lawsuits “is critically needed and should be enacted as soon as possible,” 495 organizations, including several associations representing senior living and other long-term care providers, wrote in a letter to all members of Congress.
