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Janet Caldwell was looking forward to visiting her mother again as she did before the pandemic, with no dirty window or awkward outdoor booth between them. Her 87-year-old mom's nursing home in Arkansas had announced in mid-March it would allow family members to visit residents indoors — something it had not permitted for an entire year in the coronavirus pandemic. But a few days later, the nursing home called Caldwell back to say the visits were off. There was a COVID-19 outbreak among the staff, even though weeks before the workers at the facility had already been offered the coronavirus vaccine twice. (Essley Whyte, 3/31)

CMS on Wednesday told Medicare administrative contractors not to process claims for care given on or after April 1, delaying some payments to providers. Although a congressional bill to end a 2% cut to all Medicare payments for the rest of the year is expected to pass the House later in April, the change is slated to go into effect on Thursday. The Senate approved the bill last week. If Congress ends the freeze on Medicare payment cuts, Medicare administrative contractors will reprocess paid claims automatically at the reduced rate. (Brady, 3/31)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers are close to agreement on a law that would require nursing homes to spend a set portion of their revenue on patient care, officials said, at a time when the governor’s office is under fire over how it handled Covid-19 in long-term-care facilities. The law is being discussed as part of talks around the roughly $200 billion state budget coming together this week at the state Capitol. Democrats who dominate the state Assembly and Senate have approved bills with the nursing-home spending mandate, and aides to the governor and Legislature said Wednesday they were close to a final agreement. (Vielkind and Ramey, 3/31)

As the 2021 legislative session ended, Georgia lawmakers wound up not passing a bill to allow visits by a “legal representative’’ to patients in hospitals and nursing homes during a health emergency. The legislation ping-ponged Wednesday between the two chambers, with the House supporting its previous, stronger version, and the Senate holding firm to its own stripped-down revision. (Miller, 4/1)

In early January, the marketing team of The Glenview at Pelican Bay went into residents’ rooms to film an emotional video. Residents of the retirement community, wearing “Glenview Strong” T-shirts, shared words of encouragement in hopes of easing vaccine apprehension among the staff members. “Please everybody, take the two COVID shots,” said Jim Payne. (LeFever, 4/1)