Why One ACO Wants to Send More Patients Directly to Skilled Nursing Facilities

The shrinking pool of Medicare patients has long been a source of worry for skilled nursing providers, who are battling shortfalls in revenue ranging from low state reimbursement to challenges in billing private insurance companies. In particular, accountable care organizations (ACOs) have come up over and over again as some of SNF operators’ key pain […]

CMS Chief Medical Officer: More Changes Coming to Nursing Home Compare, Quality Measures

The past several years have seen sweeping overhauls of nursing home enforcement on the federal level, and the Medicare program’s top clinical officer says her agency isn’t done beefing up its efforts. Dr. Kate Goodrich, the chief medical officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), promised that more changes are coming to […]

Unpacking the New Therapy Contract Math for Skilled Nursing Providers Under PDPM

Faced with a sea change in the Medicare reimbursement system for nursing homes, operators have spent the last year asking a key question about their therapy offerings: outsource or in-house? And if the answer is outsource, what will that relationship look like moving forward in unfamiliar payment landscape? There’s no one correct answer for contract […]

Lorien, the ‘Nursing Home Company That Doesn’t Like Nursing Homes,’ Sees Home Services as Vital to Success

As the population of the United States ages, it’s becoming imperative for long-term care operators to come up with solutions to deal with the coming demographic wave — across a variety of settings. For Lorien Health Services — which offers a range of services from skilled nursing to assisted living to dialysis across nine facilities […]

SNFs Need to Stop Thinking of Themselves as Targets for Cuts — and Get Creative

In a health care world of payment evolution and alternative reimbursement models, skilled nursing facilities have been feeling the pinch. There’s pressure to lower length of stay from both Medicare Advantage payers and accountable care organizations (ACOs). Multiple studies have found that ACOs and bundled payment models generate savings for the Centers for Medicare & […]

Despite Pressures, ACOs’ Three-Day Stay Waivers Could Emerge as Skilled Nursing Secret Weapons

Among the new payment models sweeping the skilled nursing industry, accountable care organizations (ACOs) tend to vex nursing home operators the most. These groups, which encourage cost savings by holding providers up and down the continuum accountable for overall health spending, are typically seen as length-of-stay depressants. The hospitals and physician organizations that generally lead […]

I-SNP Exec: Skilled Nursing Operators Must Approach Insurers to Succeed — But Few Do

Skilled nursing operators frequently bemoan the shorter lengths of stay and lower daily payment rates for Medicare Advantage residents, but the leader of one plan says it’s also up to providers to present novel ideas to insurance executives. Before taking the CEO role at the nursing-home focused Longevity Health Plan earlier this year, René Lerer […]

Inside an Anthem Subsidiary’s Attempt to Reward Skilled Nursing Facilities with Medicare Advantage Bonuses

Managed care and Medicare Advantage companies can be a sore spot in the skilled nursing world, but as the sector evolves, a subsidiary of a major insurer is looking at how to reward facilities for providing quality care — while keeping in mind the financial pressures that providers face. CareMore Health, a subsidiary of Medicare […]

How Avenue Development Built Two High-End Skilled Nursing Facilities — From Research to a $38M Deal

When LTC Properties (NYSE: LTC) announced a $38 million deal to buy a pair of high-end transitional rehab facilities in Missouri, it marked the end of a multi-year planning process that saw a skilled nursing developer try to plug holes in the area’s health care system. The transaction covered a completed skilled nursing facility in […]

Treating Depression Could Emerge as a PDPM ‘Linchpin’ — Both for Payments and Better Outcomes

Accurately diagnosing and treating depression could bring significant rewards for operators under the new Medicare payment model for nursing homes — both financially and clinically. Training frontline caregivers to notice the signs of depression among residents of skilled nursing facilities will be vital to success under the coming Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM), according to Zimmet […]

‘Under Siege’ for Years, SNFs Face Uphill Battle for Respect Under New Payment Models

Though skilled nursing facilities have experienced significant pain under the structures of alternative payment models such as accountable care organizations (ACOs), they still have the opportunity to show value. But it’s something of an uphill road, according to Harvard Medical School professor and Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) member David Grabowski. “I absolutely think that […]

Resident Advocate: Nursing Home Fines Must Increase to Improve Care, Prevent Harm

Between a new Medicare payment model and increased scrutiny on nursing home safety from the federal government, 2019 may go down as a watershed year for skilled nursing regulations. But at least one patient advocate says the government — particularly under the Trump administration — hasn’t gone far enough. Toby Edelman, a senior policy attorney […]

LTC Properties Inks $38M Deal for Two Ignite Transitional Skilled Nursing Facilities

LTC Properties (NYSE: LTC) on Friday announced a $38 million pair of transactions that will see the real estate investment trust (REIT) strike up a new relationship with transitional-care operator Ignite Medical Resorts. The two separate agreements consist of a $19.5 million deal to purchase a recently constructed 90-bed skilled nursing facility in the Kansas […]

Sabra Eyes Repurposing Skilled Nursing Facilities as Part of Addiction, Behavioral Expansion

Sabra Health Care REIT (Nasdaq: SBRA) on Thursday announced its impending entrance into the growing addiction treatment and behavioral health marketplace, with a specific eye toward potentially repurposing skilled nursing facilities for the task. “There aren’t very many other uses for skilled nursing facilities,” Sabra CEO Rick Matros said on his company’s second-quarter 2019 earnings […]

LTC’s Simpson: Senior Care Centers Bankruptcy Has Dragged, but REITs Aren’t to Blame for Distress

When the Dallas-based skilled nursing operator Senior Care Centers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last December, management placed the blame firmly on its leases with its real estate investment trust (REIT) and other landlords, specifically calling them “expensive.” But Wendy Simpson, president and CEO of SCC landlord LTC Properties, Inc. (NYSE: LTC), says the […]