The way Robin Hillier sees it, there is not a single process that is going to make or break a skilled nursing facility more than the MDS resident assessment. She should know.

A 40-year long-term care veteran, who serves on major association national advisory panels and boards, in addition to once owning her own facility and now running her own consultancy, Hillier is a long-term care guru of rare caliber.

Her insights into the power of the Minimum Data Set and related coding procedures are just the tip of the iceberg. She tells McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Executive Editor James M. Berklan in this McKnight’s Newsmaker podcast that this is “certainly one of the most complicated eras that we’ve been in.”

She cautions about situations where high-quality, yet unsuspecting providers may be most prone to new audits and scrutiny from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. She also counsels about coping with provisions of BBBA, which, she emphasizes, will affect each state differently.

“A group of people have their head in the sand and think there’s nothing in here that could possibly be bad,” she says. “And then the other opposite is ‘the sky is falling.’”

Hillier also confides about her “geeky” side and how she looks eagerly ahead at this time each year, and why.

Download this podcast to hear her full remarks, which include best practices advice in numerous subject areas.