Just wanted to share the good news that the Sisters of St. Joseph Annual Thanksgiving Dinner will take place this year. 

Given the continued challenges of the COVID pandemic, we will serve the dinner as we did in 2020 – which means contact-free meal delivery only; no onsite dining or takeout orders. 
 
We’re fast at work on logistics – including getting information to the donors who make this possible and to the organizations and housing units we typically serve.  And thanks to our amazing friends, we have almost all of our volunteer spots filled.
 
If you receive calls or know of anyone who is in need of a meal on Thanksgiving, please let them know that we will take meal orders between 9 a.m. and noon Tuesday, Nov. 16 – ONLY.  The number to call that day is 814-836-4198.  

On Friday October 22nd from 10-11am, the Erie County Department of Health in partnership with LECOM’s School of Pharmacy is hosting a presentation entitled: The Epidemic Amongst The Pandemic: An Opioid Crisis
 
Presenter Benjamin McDonald, LECOM graduate student, will list the areas of Erie County hit the hardest by the opioid epidemic and compare its impact across the years. He will identify the drugs most likely to result in an accidental overdose death and then examine the relationship between the pandemic and the increase in opioid deaths.
Presenter Mary Rose Kerner, ECDH epidemiology investigator, will wrap up the presentation with the Opioid Prevention Initiatives she is spearheading at the Erie County Department of Health.
 

To join in on this virtual presentation please click below for the Zoom link.

​www.dhs.pa.gov/providers/Providers/Pages/Long-Term-Care-Providers.aspx

• FMS Transition Stakeholder Meeting Agenda 9.3.21
• FMS Transition Stakeholder Meeting Tempus Presentation 9.3.21

Letters from MCOs regarding the FMS transition can be found here in the Documentation section of the page. 

​www.medicaidplanningassistance.org/definitions/

​www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/10050-medicare-and-you.pdf

OLTL CHC Financial Management Services vendor for Personal Assistant Service in CHC...
Complete transition from PPL to Tempus delayed from 1/1/2022 until April 1, 2022. 
pa.tempusunlimited.org/

​ICA LEGISLATIVE UPDATES 9/24/2021:
 
FEDERAL:

1. A continuing resolution must be passed by both the House and Senate by next Thursday 9/30/2021,

or the federal government will shut down

1. The debt ceiling must be raised or suspended by sometime in mid-October or else the federal government defaults. 

 
Work has slowed on the two major pieces of legislation,
First: a $1 trillion traditional infrastructure bill (The Senate has already passed ) and
Second: a $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” budget reconciliation bill (containing “human infrastructure” provisions) to be considered in the Senate needing 51 votes. 
The House leadership indicates it wants both bills to pass at roughly the same time. There is no hard and fast deadline. However, as time goes on the size of the budget reconciliation bill will likely shrink.
 
STATE: PENNSYLVANIA:
 
DOH Press Release: Proposed Nursing Home Regulations
7/21/2021, Wolf Administration officials shared proposed nursing home regulations focused on increasing the quality of care received by residents by increasing the minimum direct care hours by 1.4 more hours each day. The Department of Health is concurrently working on the other four packages of proposed regulations that will include proposed updates to other critical topics including change of ownership, staff development, staffing ratios, and infection control and prevention. These packages will follow the same process for public comment as this first package of proposed updates.
    Click here for the full press release
    https://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Guidance/SNF-Guidance.aspx
 
OLTL Financial Management of Personal Assistant Services;
•During Stakeholder meeting September 3, 2022 – PPL transition to Tempus and the CHC MCOs implementation timeline – Other updates provided – including participant communications
FMS Transition • Implementation date moved from Jan. 2022  to April 1, 2022.
 
• FMS for OBRA and ACT 150 program – Procurement with ODP still in progress. – Target for release in Fall 2021 – Target implementation in June 2022