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The first hint that the novel coronavirus was tearing through the nursing home in rural Kansas arrived in a Facebook post this month. The Andbe Home was in the grips of “a full COVID outbreak,” administrator Megan Mapes wrote, “despite the precautions we have been taking since March.” But behind the walls of the facility, nursing home officials had failed to take the most basic measures to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus after learning two residents were infected, according to a blistering report released Tuesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which resulted in severe penalties. (Shammas, 10/27)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued a termination letter to the Andbe Home saying they no longer meet the requirements to be a skilled nursing facility in the Medicare program. This comes after every single resident and several staff members tested positive for the coronavirus at the Norton, Kansas nursing home more than a week ago. (Shenk, 10/27)

Medicare will cover the yet-to-be approved coronavirus vaccine free for older people under a policy change expected to be announced shortly, a senior Trump administration official said Tuesday. The coming announcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services aims to align the time-consuming process for securing Medicare coverage of a new vaccine, drug or treatment with the rapid campaign to have a coronavirus vaccine ready for initial distribution once it is ready, possibly as early as the end of the year. ... Earlier this month, Medicare administrator Seema Verma said her agency was close to resolving the issue. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/27)

CMS on Tuesday proposed to allow Medicare beneficiaries to take more drugs through home infusion and simplify coverage, payment and coding for new equipment, devices and supplies. Under the proposed rule, Medicare would cover some external infusion pumps if it's medically necessary, and the program already pays for related home infusion therapy services, according to a CMS fact sheet. It would also enable benefit classification and pricing decisions to happen on the same day the billing codes used for payment of new items take effect, CMS said in a statement. (Brady, 10/27)

U.S. News and World Report published its 11th annual 2021 Best Nursing Home rankings Oct. 27. ... This year's rankings include COVID-19 data and other safety measurements, including infection control violations and vaccination rates on a new patient safety summary feature on nursing home profile pages. U.S. News used publicly available federal data as of July from the CMS Nursing Home Compare website to evaluate more than 15,000 nursing homes. (Carbajal, 10/27)