post-acute care

Federal Health Policy Update for May 30

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for May 24-30. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress When the House and Senate return to Washington, DC from the Memorial Day recess next week committees will resume holding hearings and markups on health care policy while appropriators will focus on funding for federal fiscal year 2025, which begins October 1. While there seems to be plenty of activity in Congress it is widely expected that only the most essential bills, like emergency supplemental packages and bills to keep the federal [...]

joe2024-05-30T21:29:22+00:00May 30, 2024|340b, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Congress, COVID-19, hospitals, Medicaid, Medicaid managed care, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

Hospitals Looking for More Skilled Nursing Options

After years of divesting skilled nursing facilities, hospitals are responding to the growing challenge of finding skilled nursing beds into which to discharge their patients by looking to get back into the skilled nursing business. Sort of. In general, acute-care hospitals are no longer interested in owning nursing homes but they are interested in securing access to the skilled nursing beds they need for their patients through bed reservation contracts, management and lease agreements, sharing their clinicians with nursing facilities, and more while also expanding their hospital at-home programs because they see their average length of stay increasing not because [...]

joe2024-05-08T15:49:28+00:00May 9, 2024|hospitals, post-acute care|

Supply of Nursing Home Beds Declining

The number of nursing home beds in the U.S. is fast declining, according to a new analysis commissioned by the American Health Care Association, a nursing home trade group. According to the study, 21 percent of nursing home operators have downsized – dropped beds or units. 55 percent have turned away people seeking nursing home beds. 48 percent have waiting lists. 579 facilities have closed since 2020, and along with them, the supply of nursing home beds fell by more than 45,000. Nursing home operators cite a number of reasons for the decline, including current reimbursement practices – especially for [...]

admin2023-08-28T06:00:39+00:00August 28, 2023|hospitals, Medicaid, post-acute care|

MedPAC Meets

Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. to discuss a number of Medicare payment issues. The issues on MedPAC’s October agenda were: restructuring Medicare Part D improving Medicare payment for low-volume and isolated outpatient dialysis facilities updates to the methods used to assess the adequacy of Medicare’s payments for physicians and other health professionals population-based outcome measures: avoidable hospitalizations and emergency department visits aligning benefits and cost-sharing under a unified payment system for post-acute care policy options to modify the hospice aggregate cap MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues involving the [...]

admin2019-10-07T06:00:37+00:00October 7, 2019|Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

Feds Looking to Bundle Medicare Post-Acute Payments?

Bring us your ideas for bundling Medicare post-acute-care payments, the head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation recently told a gathering of hospital officials in Washington, D.C. As reported by Fierce Healthcare, CMMI director Adam Boehler told hospital officials that Now is the time to bring us ideas. We’re really in listening mode…I think there’s been a lot of intrigue and interest we’ve heard from people. So we’re gathering stakeholder input there on that and it’s a great time to give us thoughts on where we can lower costs. Learn more from the Fierce Healthcare article "CMMI's Adam [...]

admin2019-04-15T06:00:16+00:00April 15, 2019|Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, CMMI, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, post-acute care|

SNF Discharge May Affect Hospital Readmission Rates

Heart failure patients discharged from skilled nursing facilities after two days or less may be as much as four times more likely to be readmitted to a hospital than those who stay longer, according to a new analysis. The study also found that the hospital readmission rate falls by half for patients who remain in a skilled nursing facility for one to two weeks. The analysis evaluated Medicare data for heart failure patients at least 65 years old and did not adjust for their severity of illness. These findings suggest that the current emphasis on limiting patients’ time in post-acute-care [...]

admin2019-04-11T06:00:21+00:00April 11, 2019|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, post-acute care|

MedPAC Debates Post-Acute Payments

As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services continues to develop a unified payment system for all post-acute-care providers, Congress’s advisors on Medicare payment policy appear ready to weigh in on an important aspect of such a system: Whether payments should be based on entire episodes of care or individual stays in post-acute-care facilities. And at least for now, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is leaning toward recommending that post-acute-care payments be based on individual stays. At their March public meeting, MedPAC commissioners expressed concern that post-acute-care payments based on entire episodes of care might create financial incentives for providers [...]

admin2019-03-13T14:55:27+00:00March 13, 2019|Medicare post-acute care, MedPAC|

Rural Nursing Homes Struggle With Challenges

Across rural parts of the country skilled nursing facilities are struggling, and growing numbers are faltering in the face of many problems. Among the challenges they face are: difficulty passing health and safety standards evolving health care policies that encourage people to remain in their homes instead of choosing to enter nursing homes growing proportions of patients covered by Medicaid the failure of Medicaid payments in many states to cover the cost of nursing home care These challenges are especially acute in rural areas. Today, many regions have enough skilled nursing beds, at least on paper, but they are not [...]

admin2019-03-06T06:00:27+00:00March 6, 2019|Medicaid, post-acute care|

Nursing Home Study: More Medicaid Patients=Worse Care

Nursing homes that serve larger proportions of Medicaid patients have lower quality ratings, according to a new study from the American Health Care Association, a long-term-care provider trade group. The study also found that: For-profit nursing homes care for more Medicaid patients than non-profits. Rural nursing homes care for more Medicaid patients than urban facilities. Large facilities care for a higher proportion of Medicaid patients than smaller facilities. Learn more about the study and the theories behind some of these findings in the McKnight’s Long-Term Care News article “AHCA study: Facilities with higher Medicaid populations have poorer quality outcomes.” [...]

admin2019-02-28T13:00:01+00:00February 28, 2019|Medicaid, post-acute care|

Nursing Home Occupancy Down

Nursing home occupancy fell from 83.07 percent in 2013 to 80.24 percent at the end of 2017, according to a new report. The amount of time patients spend in nursing homes is falling as well. Declining occupancy and length of stay and shrinking reimbursement have led to nursing home closings and a six percent decline in cash on hand between 2013 to 2017. Learn more about some of the challenges facing skilled nursing facilities in the McKnight’s Long-Term Care News report “Dwindling reimbursement, occupancy numbers chipping away at skilled nursing margins, new analysis finds.”

admin2019-02-27T13:00:08+00:00February 27, 2019|post-acute care|