Are You Sure Your Partners Are Compliant? Why Vendor Vetting Belongs in Your Corporate Compliance Plan By Aculabs Inc. | October 2026 Healthcare facilities operate in one of the most heavily regulated environments in the country. Yet one gap repeatedly surfaces in corporate compliance audits: the failure to systematically vet outside vendors — especially clinical
Understanding CLIA Licenses: What Every Aculabs Client Should Know A guide for skilled nursing facility owners, administrators, and directors of nursing At Aculabs, we believe an informed client is a protected client. One area that generates a lot of understandable confusion is the alphabet soup of CLIA certifications and licenses that surround laboratory services
Why Following Manufacturer's Guidelines Matters for CLIA-Waived Testing in Skilled Nursing Facilities CLIA-waived tests have become indispensable tools in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). Point-of-care glucose meters, urinalysis dipsticks, rapid strep and flu tests, INR monitors, and rapid COVID-19 assays allow nursing staff to obtain timely results without sending specimens to an outside laboratory. But
On this 250th anniversary of the birth of our nation, I find myself thinking not just about America's history — but about my own family's remarkable place within it. My father, Algird Gudaitis, came to America fleeing one of the darkest chapters in modern history. Having survived both German and Soviet occupation during World War
Introduction Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease in a primary care setting has long been hindered by invasive procedures and limited access to specialty diagnostics. Now, the Elecsys® pTau181 test from Roche—an FDA-cleared Alzheimer’s blood test—offers primary care providers a practical tool to rule out Alzheimer’s-related amyloid pathology in patients aged 55 and older presenting
Addressing the Workforce and Staffing Crisis in Nursing Homes Introduction The U.S. nursing home sector is facing an unprecedented workforce and staffing crisis. With 99% of facilities reporting open positions and a 7.6% decline in workforce since 2020, nursing homes struggle to maintain mandated staff-to-resident ratios. High turnover, soaring agency staff costs, and widespread
Introduction Post-acute and skilled nursing centers face mounting pressures: staffing shortages, complex reimbursement changes, stringent regulatory requirements and growing cost constraints. As care models evolve, leaders must find innovative ways to maintain high-quality outcomes while optimizing operational efficiency. Fortunately, large language models in healthcare and agentic systems in healthcare are emerging as powerful cognitive
It is becoming clear that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are systematically limiting access to laboratory testing through prior authorization requirements, creating a two-tiered healthcare system where beneficiaries face barriers that traditional Medicare patients never encounter. Prior authorization barriers create diagnostic delays, and the scope of this problem has exploded over the past decade. What
The routine use of molecular urine testing - particularly multiplex PCR assays - for diagnosing UTIs in nursing homes has become increasingly controversial. A recent McKnight’s article highlights a call on providers to stop using routine PCR urine tests for UTIs, "the most common infection in nursing homes," citing patient safety concerns, escalating costs,
At Aculabs, we understand how crucial accurate diagnosis coding is to the success of claims submission and timely reimbursement. Unfortunately, we are seeing an increasing number of claim denials from payors due to the use of "invalid" primary diagnosis codes. What Are Invalid Primary Diagnosis Codes? An "invalid" primary diagnosis code typically refers to one that