skilled nursing facilities

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 [...]

joe2024-05-08T15:49:28-04:00May 9, 2024|hospitals, post-acute care|

Future Financial Prospects Mixed for Post-Acute Providers, Analysis Suggests

Assisted living facilities, hospice, and home health providers should see their profitability rise over the next three years, according to a new analysis by McKinsey & Company. Nursing homes and inpatient rehabilitation facilities, on the other hand, may see their profitability decline as they continue to struggle with the current shortage of qualified nurses. Learn more about the near-term prospects for post-acute-care providers from the McKnight’s Long-Term Living article “Skilled nursing profits will shrink through 2026, even as other post-acute lines gain: analysis.”

iqtsupport2023-01-25T06:00:33-05:00January 25, 2023|post-acute care|

Some Patients May Safely Leave Nursing Homes Faster, Study Finds

Some patients can be safely discharged from skilled nursing facilities faster than they currently are, a new study has found. And not just a day or two, either: as much as a week or more. The study focused on patients who had been in SNFs for about 20 days – the point at which Medicare beneficiaries begin shouldering a portion of the cost of their nursing care. Discharging some of these patients a week early, the study found, did not affect rehospitalization by day 28 for 98 percent of the patients discharged around day 20. The study, its authors assert, [...]

iqtsupport2021-05-05T06:00:18-04:00May 5, 2021|Medicare 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 [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-11T06:00:21-04:00April 11, 2019|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, post-acute care|

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 [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-06T06:00:27-05:00March 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.” [...]

iqtsupport2019-02-28T13:00:01-05:00February 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.”

iqtsupport2019-02-27T13:00:08-05:00February 27, 2019|post-acute care|

Nursing Homes Turning Away Addicted Patients

Nursing homes frequently refuse to serve patients being treated with medication to serve opioid addictions. They do so even though opioid addiction is considered a chronic disease and recognized as such under the Americans With Disabilities Act. While some nursing homes claim not to be aware of the obligation to serve such patients, others choose not to do so, with some claiming they lack the resources or expertise to serve such patients or that abstinence from opioid use is superior to medication as a treatment for opioid addiction. As a result, many acute-care hospitals have difficulty finding skilled nursing placements [...]

iqtsupport2018-05-02T06:00:40-04:00May 2, 2018|post-acute care|

Socio-Economic Factors’ Role in Skilled Nursing Facility Finances

Skilled nursing facilities located in communities with higher-than-typical numbers of low-income and minority patients are under greater financial stress than comparable facilities located in other communities. Nursing homes that serve higher proportions of Medicaid patients the same challenge. And both of these conditions detract from the quality of care such facilities provide. These are the findings of a new study published in the journal Health Services Research. According to the study, Medicaid-dependent nursing homes have a 3.5 percentage point lower operating ratio. Those serving primarily racial minorities have a 2.64-point lower quality rating. A 1 percent increase in the neighborhood [...]

iqtsupport2017-11-21T06:00:22-05:00November 21, 2017|post-acute care|

Little Rhyme or Reason to Post-Stroke Care Choices

Despite medical recommendations that stroke patients choose inpatient rehabilitation facilities for their post-acute care, significant numbers of patients continue to seek such care in skilled nursing facilities. And experts do not understand why. The choices, according to a new study, are based primarily on recommendations by hospitals and are being made despite a recommendation by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association that patients turn to inpatient rehab facilities rather than skilled nursing facilities for post-stroke care. Researchers found no apparent reason for the choices patients make between the two types of facilities. Learn more about where stroke patients [...]

iqtsupport2017-08-29T14:22:39-04:00August 29, 2017|post-acute care|